Cousins Adrift
by Jedi Jelsa777
Summary: Two cousins meet the turtles one night (2012 universe) and their lives are changed, but is it for the better?
1. Chapter 1

*ugh lame name for the story, I'm sorry, but I literally had no idea what to call this, even though I am partway through Chapter 4. In case I forget to put this in the description, this is set in the 2012 universe, though at an undetermined date in the future. I'm thinking about having the two OCs pair up with a turtle each, but ehh I don't know yet, let me know what you think about it.*

Lianna sighed as she looked around her new room. At least that was the one good thing about their recent move from Los Angeles to New York, she finally got her own room. The blond swept her braid from one shoulder to the other, the tip if it reaching to her waist. Her blue/green eyes took in the room and she pictured what it would be like when all of her furniture was in place.

Across the hall, her cousin Mattie looked over her room as well. Mattie had lived with Lianna and her parents since her own parents had died in a fire three years ago. The emergency crews hadn't been able to reach their house in time, as the road was torn up from an earthquake, the same earthquake that had caused the gas leak that had started the fire.

Mattie had chopped her dark brown hair herself before the move, so while parts of it were shoulder length there were parts that were both longer and shorter. Her dark drown, almost black eyes, took in the room. While soon it would be filled with her things and her things alone, she didn't feel like this would ever be home.

Why couldn't they have stayed in Los Angeles? Just when she was starting to make friends, her uncle had been transferred by his employer to here, New York of all places. She knew no one here, and she didn't feel like starting over again. Sighing, she sat down in the middle of her room, pulling her laptop, which was constantly by her side in its pouch, out so that she could video chat with her friends back in Los Angeles. Even that wasn't home, home had been a little town close to the ocean where she and her parents had been happy.

She stopped herself right there. She would not think about her parents, she would not cry. She turned on her computer and was soon chatting with one of her two friends. Lianna had walked across the hall to talk to her, but seeing that she was busy, she headed down stairs. The movers were just bringing in the first pieces of furniture, and she was happy to see her bed was one of those pieces.

Soon her room was completely furnished, though without Mattie's things it still felt a bit empty as there was plenty of space. She looked at the walls which had been painted her favorite shade of green and, reaching into a box, pulled out some posters and pictures to put on them. Once that was done and she had made her bed, she dubbed her room good enough for the day, she could live out of her boxes until she got around to putting everything else away.

Pulling out her own laptop, she decided to look up the school she was going to, classes wouldn't start for another two months, but when they did she was hoping to already have a few friends that went there. Unlike her old school, however, there was no chat room for the students, so she looked up one, feeling a bit lonely. She had always been the class clown, but even so she had never had many friends.

She found one that looked interesting and logged in, making the user name NewInNewYork. She watched a few minutes of other people chatting when she got a private message from the user GeniusInX. It said, "Hey dude or dudette, why aren't you saying anything?" She sat for a minute before replying, "I am just enjoying getting to hear about New York, I just recently moved here as my name suggests. What do you like most about New York?"

Not even ten seconds later she got a reply that said, "PIZZA!" She laughed softly before replying, "I will have to get me some then." A short time later he replied, "You should go to Mr. Murakami's noodle shop and try the Pizza Gyoza. Tell him Mikey sent you." "I just might do that, thanks for the suggestion Mikey. I'm Lianna by the way."

"Nice to meet you Lianna, I have to go, my brothers want me, catch you later!" Before he was completely gone, however, he sent her a friend request on there, which she accepted. She watched the chat feed a little longer, before closing her computer and heading downstairs. Mattie was down there with her parents and they were trying to decide what to eat.

"I was just on a chat room and someone suggested Mr. Murakami's noodle shop. They said to try the Pizza Gyoza." Lianna said. Her mother said, "Well it can't hurt to try. I will call and your father can go pick them up." That was done, and soon they were all popping a Pizza Gyoza into their mouth. Mattie and Lianna were instantly in love, both being avid pizza fans to begin with. Lianna's parents liked them, but they weren't as impressed as the girls were.

Weeks passed and soon both girl's rooms were set up the way the wanted and they were completely unpacked. Mattie continued to talk to her friends back home, while Lianna and Mikey became closer and closer. He had asked one time if she had any siblings and she told him about having a cousin who lived with her, which was the closest she had to a sister. She asked him if he went to her school and was slightly disappointed when he responded that he was homeschooled.

They had almost been talking for a month when she made a comment about how cool it would be to meet in person sometime. "I don't know, last time I met someone I met on the internet he didn't turn out to be who I thought he was." Mikey replied. Lianna thought, "Aww poor Mikey, he must have been kidnapped! So lucky that he got back home safely." They were having a great talk about some of their favorite comics, when Mikey suddenly said, "I have to go, talk to you later Lianna!"

She had gotten used to this, Mikey leaving suddenly. She assumed it had something to do with his three brothers he had mentioned, Leo, Raph and Donnie, but she was never quite sure. She got up and went to Mattie's room, her timing impeccable as Mattie was just getting done chatting with her friends. "Hey Mattie, want to go fence?" she asked her cousin.

The dark haired girl grinned and said, "Sure, meet you in the basement once I grab my gear." The basement was an exercise room for the family, who were all into fencing. Lianna's parents had at one time in their lives been fencing instructors, that was how they met in fact, before her dad got a big corporate job, the same which had led to this move. Still they all kept up with their fencing, Mattie having been taught since she came to join their family, and she could hold her own now quite nicely.

Mattie and Lianna fenced for an hour before calling it quits, then they turned to hand to hand combat. Lianna's mother had always wanted her daughter to be safe, so she had her take some self-defense classes back in Los Angeles, enrolling Mattie as well when she came to live with them. They had even made up some moves themselves, which they enjoyed doing. A half hour into that, Lianna's mom called them up for dinner.

Later, after they had helped with the dishes and headed upstairs, Mattie said, "Come with me." She led Lianna to her window, which had a fire escape. She climbed out onto it and motioned Lianna to join her. Once she had they both headed to the roof, where Lianna found a great view of the city. "This is amazing!" she told her cousin. "I discovered it the other night, when a rat went running by my window."

"We should fence up here! Look at all the great obstacles which would add to the fun!" Lianna said. "I thought you would say that, so I took the liberty of grabbing your gear when I went to the bathroom earlier and brought it up here." Mattie replied with a smirk.

"So that's why you took so long." Lianna said with a laugh, "Let's do this!" They geared up and were just about to get into it, when Lianna held up her hand. Mattie waited, listening. She heard what had caught Lianna's ear, sounds of clanging and someone saying something like boyakasha. They hustled quietly over to edge of their building, looking to the roof below. Their eyes widening with what they saw.

Four human sized turtles, fighting what appeared to be ninja robots. In fact, when the girls took a closer look, they realized the turtles themselves were ninjas. They shared a look of wonder before returning their gazes to the turtles. One of them, he had a purple mask on, shouted, "There are too many of them!"

The girls could see that he was right, as more ninja robots poured onto the roof. Soon the four turtles were overpowered by the shear mass of ninja robots. "We got to help them!" Lianna said, looking at her cousin. Mattie nodded and then both girls backed away from the edge before taking a running start, leaping over the edge of their roof to the one below, landing and going immediately into a roll before standing and attacking the nearest robots with their fencing blades.

That got the attention of the robots as the ones nearest to the girls were sliced, having removed the safety guard as they landed from their weapons. They hacked their way towards the turtles, and the robots, momentarily turning their attention to the girls, suddenly found themselves attacked on both sides as the turtles found their footing again and went on the attack.

XXX

"Umm guys, I hate to break it to you, but we've been discovered." Mikey said in a mock whisper to his brothers. "No, really Mikey? I hadn't noticed." Raph said to his younger brother. "We'll worry about that later right now, let's teach these Foot Bots whose boss." Leo said to both of them. With a nod from the two brothers and Donnie, the four attacked, throwing their opponents off balance. "Ohh Casey is going to be so mad that he missed such an epic throw down!" Raph said somewhat gleefully.

XXX

The cousins parried and thrust and sliced, dodging the Foot Bots with ease. ""This is so cool! We are fighting robots alongside of human sized turtles! It's like something out of a comic book!" Lianna thought. Her cousin was just like, "Oh yeah this feels great!" They had often teamed up against Lianna's parents in fencing, so they had learned to move around each other, which was coming in handy with this. They ducked under the other's blow without a word spoken between them, attuned to each other as if they could read the other's mind.

Soon what was left of the robots retreated, leaving them alone on the roof with the turtles. "Dude, that was awesome! Way to jump in and save the day!" the orange masked turtle said. Something about the way that he spoke tickled at Lianna's mind, but with the adrenaline still rushing through her body, she couldn't quite think of why. "Great, two more humans know about us. They'll probably run home and tell everyone all about us." The one with the red mask said.

Mattie scoffed and said, "Like anyone would even believe us." Then she turned to Lianna and said mockingly, "Oh guess what!? Last night, Lianna and I rescued and fought with four ninja turtles!" The orange and purple masked ones hid their smiles behind their hands as the red masked one growled. The one with the blue mask on smiled a bit at the spunky girl, before saying to the others, "We got to go."

"Wait!" said Lianna, "Who and what are you?" "We are mutants." The purple masked one answered. "As for who we are, I am Leonardo, that's Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo." The blue masked one said. "Or for short, Leo, Donnie…." The one named Michelangelo started. "Raph and Mikey!" Lianna finished, surprise filling her voice.


	2. Chapter 2

"That's right!" Mikey said with a smile, then after a short pause continued, "Wait, how did you know that?" "Mikey, I'm the Lianna that talks to you on the internet, the one you told about Pizza Gyozas. This is my cousin Mattie." Lianna replied with a smile on her face. "Dude, no way! Guys this is the girl I told you about!" Mikey replied, an even bigger smile on his face as he turned to his brothers.

"Ah so this is the cool chick who really digs you that you met over the internet." Raph teased. Lianna laughed softly as a blush colored Mikey's face and he said, "Raph!" Mattie stayed silent, watching this all with a smirk. "It's nice getting to meet you in person Mikey." Lianna said before turning to Mattie and saying, "Ready to head back and pick up where we left off?"

Her cousin said, "Yep." As she bent down and picked up the guards for both of their blades. "What kind of blades are those?" Leo couldn't help but ask. "They're small swords, my sister and I use them sometimes when we are fencing. Technically in fencing there aren't supposed to be sharp blades, but my parents are always worried about us being mugged so we each have one weapon that is sharp, hence the guards." Lianna replied. Mattie handed Lianna her guard and she thanked her cousin.

She slipped hers on as she continued, "Good thing for you guys Mattie and I find the challenge of not cutting each other to death while fencing an extra bonus, otherwise we might have had our normal blades, and therefore not made much of a difference." "Where did you even come from?" Donnie asked. Mattie scoffed before saying, "I take it you mean just now. That roof up there, it's the roof of our home. We were just about to get into an epic match when we heard the going ons down here."

"You jumped from up there? Without hesitation?" Mikey asked, for it was two stories above where they were. The cousins looked at each other and shrugged. "You needed help, so we just did it." Lianna said. "Besides we used to go across roofs back home, it was a safer way to travel then some streets." Mattie said. "Just don't tell my parents that." Lianna joked with her cousin, to the turtles she said, "They don't know we did that."

"Well we'll be seeing you guys." Mattie said before taking a running jump back towards their house, grabbing onto the fire escape and pulling herself over before turning around to make sure her cousin was following her. "Yeah, bye guys. Mikey shoot me a message so I know you made it back safe." Lianna shot over her shoulder as she ran to the edge of the roof, jumping to join her cousin. Once she was safely over, with one final goodbye to the guys over her shoulder, they began to climb back up to the roof.

The turtles were in awe of these girls who had no problem jumping from roof to roof, or roof to fire escape in this case. "Dude!" Mikey finally said. "Come on guys, Master Splinter will be waiting for us." Leo said. "Whose gonna tell him about this?" Raph asked. The four brothers shared a look before they all said, "Not it." They glared at each other, before Leo said, "We'll all tell him. Mikey can tell how the girls knew our names already." The other brothers looked smug at this suggestion and Raph said, "Whatever you say, Fearless."

XXX

Once back at their lair, the turtles told their father what had happened while they were out that night. He too seem intrigued by these girls, though also a bit concerned for them. "I know they may seem like they can handle things themselves, but you did put a few cameras around to keep an eye out for the Foot Clan, in case they sought revenge, right?" He asked. The turtles exchanged sheepish looks, letting their Sensei know that they hadn't even thought of this danger.

"Tomorrow you will go do that, for the sun will rise too soon for you to do it today. Michelangelo, you should send her a message like she asked, but also warn her about the Foot." He said, before turning to head to his quarters. Mikey hopped on the computer, sending off a message to Lianna as his father had told him.

XXX

The cousins had had an epic duel with each other upon returning to their roof, before they headed inside for the night. Lianna checked for any messages from Mikey, but at that time there wasn't any. If he hadn't written to her by morning, she was going to get Mattie to help her look for them. For now she turned in, bushed from the workout she had received today.

Mattie listened as her cousin's breathing signaled she had dropped off to sleep. How she wish she could be like her, able to fall asleep at the drop of a pin, but ever since that fire… No, not even in the dark of the night could she think about it. For to think about it would bring tears, tears she didn't know if she could stop.

XXX

The next morning, when she checked her messages, Mattie found that Mikey had written her. She read it and then called her cousin in, showing what the turtle had told her. "Well, we'll just have to keep our weapons at the ready then." Mattie said. With that she left to go back to her own room. Lianna wrote Mikey back that they would be careful, before going downstairs to see her parents.

Her dad was getting ready to go out the door and her mom had an interview for a part time job that she would soon be leaving for. Lianna gave both of her parents a hug, told them that she and Mattie would be fine, and then went to get breakfast. She heard her mom leave shortly after that and soon Mattie came downstairs for her own breakfast.

When she had finished, she gave her cousin a mischievous grin and said, "Want to see if we can find the turtles' lair?" Lianna gave her a look before saying, "Why would we do that? Mikey would probably stop talking to me because he would think I was stalking him or something. I don't want to lose the one friend I have here besides you Mattie."

Mattie made an ugh sound before saying, "But I'm just so bored! Fine, how about we explore the sewers, remember all the cool stuff we could find back in Los Angeles in them?" "But we had someone there that knew them that showed us around, if we're not careful we could get lost in there." Lianna shot down Mattie's new plan. "Please? What better way to get to know our new city then seeing what people are careless with?" Mattie begged, making her sad face.

Lianna sighed. Ever since Mattie's parents had died, she couldn't find it in her to say no when she made the sad face. "Fine, but we are taking a GPS and I am sending a message to Mikey so that way someone knows where we have gone!" "Oh, gonna tell your boyfriend?" her cousin teased. Lianna stuck her tongue out at her as she went upstairs.

Mikey had responded to her previous message just saying good. She sighed, maybe she had already lost her friend, still she typed "Mattie wants to explore the sewers today. We did it back home but we had a guide then and so I just don't feel safe going down there, but she really wants to so I am telling you so that if we don't get back by night time someone knows where we are." She grabbed her GPS device and exited her room, just as Mikey wrote her back trying to tell her not to search the sewers.

XXX

He waited patiently for what seemed like an hour (but in reality was only five minutes) before he went yelling, "Leo! LEO!" Leo exited the dojo and said, "Calm down Mikey, what is it?" Mikey told about the message he had received. "Check for the nearest man hole to their house, while I tell Master Splinter and get Donnie and Raph." Leo said. "Right." Said Mikey, before running off to do that. Leo sighed and mumbled to himself as he went to do as he said he would.

XXX

"Hang on Mattie, we have been walking for miles, we should really turn around while we can still find our way back." Lianna said a few hours later, "Besides, it's getting late and my parents will get worried if we aren't back before dark." Mattie rolled her eyes in the dark, glad her cousin couldn't see them before saying, "Come on Lianna, we have walked practically in a straight line, or at least we haven't taken any side routes. Just a bit longer?"

Lianna sighed and said, "I don't know Mat, it's just… I feel like we are being watched these past few minutes, haven't you?" Mattie reached for her sword, which was hanging at her waist like her cousin's, having brought them just in case they ran into other spelunkers that weren't so friendly. "You don't have to draw your sword Mattie." Came a familiar voice out of the darkness, "Leo, Donnie, Mikey, I found them, they're over here."

"You guys were looking for us?" Lianna asked, "Why, it can't be past dark yet?" "Do you have any idea what we have had to deal with down here?" Raph asked, some anger slipping into his voice, causing Lianna to shrink back a bit while making Mattie glare and get ready to spew some back at him. "We have dealt with mutant mushrooms that could make you imagine your worst fear, the only way to "cure" you is to kill the head mushroom. Not to mention Kraang and Foot Bots and other Mutants." He continued, on a roll with his anger.

"Sorry." Lianna whispered, as Leo came running up with the other turtles saying, "Knock it off Raph, they were just curious about their new home." Mattie, unfazed by Raph's attitude said with a smirk, "So this is how you get around when you aren't using rooftops. I like your taste." Raph glared while Donnie and Mikey hid smiles, loving seeing how this girl riled Raph up.

"Raph is right about the dangers down here though." Leo continued, as if Mattie hadn't spoken, "You shouldn't be down here, especially not on your own." Mattie turned to Leo, the anger that Raph had stirred up now focused on him, as she said with steel in her voice, "We are NOT alone, we have each other, besides I think you're just making that stuff up, we were probably getting to close to your home or something."

"Mattie!" Lianna said, finding her voice again, "I'm sure there really are dangers down here, there were back in Los Angeles. Let's let them take us home, with their help we can get there much quicker and probably won't have to explain to my parents where we have been." Mattie stared off with her cousin, before dropping her gaze and saying, "Fine, let's go." She started walking back the way they had come.


	3. Chapter 3

As they walked back with their turtle guards, Lianna had many questions she wanted to ask them, but she didn't know if they would welcome that. Oh well, what better way to find out then asking? "What made you guys the way you are? You said you were mutants last night." Lianna asked. She could feel two sets of eyes (Mikey didn't really care) glare at Donnie for telling that much, and she almost retracted her question before Leo simply answered, "Mutagen."

Lianna took a deep breath before asking the next logical question she could think of, "We're you turtles or humans before?" "Turtles." Answered Donnie, not daring to say more for fear of angering his older brothers. The talk ended there for a while, until Mikey and Lianna started talking about comics they both enjoy. Raph and Mattie rolled their eyes as the two got really into it. Donnie took that time to catch up with Leo, who was in the lead.

He quietly asked, "What's the matter Leo?" "Not now Donnie." He answered, letting his authority as leader lace his voice, but keeping it soft so the others behind him did not hear, "When we get back to the lair." Then he went silent again. Donnie sighed, before falling back to his old position on one side of the girls. Mikey was on the other, keeping up a study stream of conversation the whole while with Lianna, and Raph was bringing up the rear.

Soon they reached the man hole from which the girls had entered. Lianna thanked the turtles, while Mattie silently followed her cousin up the ladder to the surface. Then the turtles themselves headed for home. Donnie was eager to find out what was up with Leo.

XXX

When the turtles reached their lair, Donnie immediately said, "Okay Leo, we are in the lair, spill it." Raph and Mikey, who hadn't noticed or heard the conversation in the tunnels between the two brothers, had a bewildered look on their faces, not sure where Donnie was coming from. Leo sighed and said, "It was just to close, they weren't that far from here when Raph found them."

"And why, may I ask, would it be a bad thing if they found this place? They saved our lives Leo and it's not like they are the only people who know where this is, April, Casey and Karai do too." "That's different." Leo said with a slash of his hands. "Why, because Karai is your girlfriend?" Raph mumbled. Leo glared at him, he had been hoping Raph would be on his side.

"Karai is not my girlfriend, she is, however, Splinter's daughter, and April and Casey have proven themselves time and again." "So jumping from a building that is two stories above the building we were on to help us isn't a good enough reason?" Mikey asked. "Yes, Mikey, that isn't enough." Leo said with a sigh.

"How about if Foot Bots were surrounding their home?" Mikey asked. "Well, maybe then…" "What if Lianna's parents were being kidnapped… is still called a kidnapping when it's an adult Donnie?" Donnie was about to answer when he was interrupted by Leo asking, "Okay maybe then, Mikey." "Well then looks like they'll be coming here to see us soon." Mikey said with a smile.

The other brothers all looked at the youngest, before Donnie rushed over, pushing Mikey out of the chair at the computer. "HEY!" Mikey exclaimed as he sat up from where he fell on the floor. "Oh no, Leo, I sent some spyroaches to keep an eye on them until we could get camera running and Mikey is right, look!" He made the image fill the screen as his other brothers crowded close.

"Go, my sons, these girls may be in need of your assistance this time." Splinter said from the door of the dojo, "If you must you may bring them here for shelter, but I hope that is not the case." The four turtles nodded to their master, before running for the tunnels, hoping they could reach the girls and their family in time.

XXX

The ninjas carefully exited the sewer. It was almost night, but there was still enough sun to illuminate them all too well. The sounds of screaming pulled them to the front of the house, where they saw Lianna and Mattie, desperately hacking at Foot Bots to reach Lianna's parents. Her parents were screaming at them to run, but the girls wouldn't leave them. The Foot Bots closed the doors to the van they held them in, and one of them started driving away with it.

Leo motioned Donnie and Raph to go after the vehicle while he and Mikey were supposed to get to Lianna and Mattie, but the moment Donnie and Raph started to give chase, Foot Bots blocked their way. Before they could get past them or toss a tracker on the vehicle, it pulled out of sight, as more Foot Bots came to prevent them from following.

They were pushed back towards their brother and Donnie yelled, "Sorry Leo, there are too many of them." They had almost reached the girls by this time. Leo sighed, he remembered how April had been after they had caused the mutation of her dad, even though it had been accidental. These girls were going to blame them for not being able to catch the vehicle or if something happened to the people in it, he just knew it.

The girls, having seen the turtles, hacked their way towards them, determined to reach them now that Lianna's parents were gone. Finally they reached the turtles side, Leo said to them, "Stick close." Turning to his brothers he said, "Mikey now!" The girls watched as Mikey threw what looked like an egg on the ground, and a purple smoke flashed out.

When the smoke cleared, the turtles and girls were gone, down into the sewers. The turtles led the girls through several turns until they were hopelessly lost, though the turtles seemed to know where they were going. They paused after a few more turns so that everyone could catch their breath. Donnie asked, "Is everyone okay?"

At his soft voice, Lianna almost lost it. Raph, seeing her trembling lip, said, "Don't cry yet, we still have a ways to go to get to a safe place." His voice was oddly gentle, causing Lianna to be able to get the grip on her emotions that she needed. She nodded to show she understood, for she was afraid she couldn't keep control if she opened her mouth. Mattie put a hand on her cousin's arm, before asking, "How much further?"

"Not too much." Leo replied. Mikey looked at his friend's face and walked over to her. She had collapsed to the ground when Leo had called halt, exhausted from trying to reach her parents and holding in emotions. "Want me to carry you?" Mikey asked gently. She looked up in surprise before softly saying, "If I wouldn't be too heavy for you."

Mikey scooped her up, finding her quite light, and looked at Raph and nodded to Mattie, who though was feeling just as tired as her cousin, kept to her feet so as not to appear weak. Raph rolled his eyes at his brother, then said to Mattie, "Would you like a lift?" She almost said no, but she swallowed her pride and said, "Yes please." Raph lifted her up as Mikey had Lianna and they both nodded at Leo and Donnie that they were ready to go.

They hadn't even gone around another corner, before the girls collapsed into an exhausted sleep. Mikey smiled down at his friend and whispered as only Mikey can whisper, "Aww she's kind of cute when she's asleep!" "I'll tell her you said that when she wakes up." Raph said, who had also been surprised by Mattie's light weight. "Keep it down you two, they need their sleep." Donnie whispered sharply, causing both of the brothers to fall silent.

XXX

As Lianna awoke, she stared at the ceiling in confusion. Though it hadn't been her room very long, she was sure the ceiling didn't look like that. Then the events of what happened came flooding back. A slight sob came from her lips as she remembered her parents were gone, taken for some reason or other. She heard the sound of someone moving nearby and suddenly Mikey was there. He said, "It's okay to cry now, your safe."

Lianna threw her arms over his shoulders and buried her head against his plastron, sobs wracking her body, though they were silent ones. After his initial surprise at the hug, Mikey returned it, rubbing her back in a calming pattern sand saying stuff like, "Let it all out." That's how the other turtles found them. Mikey looked up at them as he walked in and gave them a sad smile.

The Leo and Donnie came over, both putting a calm, encouraging hand on Lianna and offering small words of encouragement. Raph found all that stuff to uncomfortable and was going to tell Master Splinter that Lianna had woken up, when he noticed Mattie's eyes were open as well. Something about them drew him to her and he sat next to her, not touching her, as he said, "You okay?" Mattie shook her head no and whispered, "First my parents and now Lianna's, life is not fair."

Raph didn't know what to say or do, but luckily for him Mattie made the first move. She sat up and buried her head in his plastron and joined her cousin in her silent sobs. Raph was uncomfortable at first and didn't dare move, but finally he put his nearest arm around her and squeezed her shoulder, trying to show her that everything would be alright.

Master Splinter seemed to sense that the girls were awake and came out of the dojo. He walked over to Mattie and Raph, putting a calming hand on the girl before turning to Lianna and his other sons and doing the same for her. Both girls seemed to relax a bit and the sobs started coming slower and further apart. Soon both gathered themselves, embarrassed for having cried in front of these turtles that they barely knew.

Mattie glared at Raph, sending him a silent message that seemed to say that if he ever spoke about this he was going to be sorry. Raph knew he would never, ever tease her about this break down, not after what she had said before crying. What had happened to her parents? The girls started upon seeing Master Splinter, but Lianna went up and hugged him saying, "Thank you for letting us come here."

Splinter was surprised that this girl had no problem hugging him even though he looked like this. He knew that a lot of people found rodents terrifying, Casey was a good example of that. He put a hand on her back as he said, "You are welcome. Though I fear it is our fault you are in this mess. From what my sons tell me they were taken by the Foot Clan, the same ones you saved them from a short while ago."

"That still doesn't make it your fault, Mattie and I chose to help, we could have just turned away and ignored it." Lianna said, stepping back from the humanoid rat. "What are we going to do now?" Mattie whispered, more to her cousin than anyone else, but Splinter caught it. "Do you have any other family?" he asked. The girls shook their head as Lianna said, "Not besides my parents."

Splinter recalled that Mattie was Lianna's cousin from what Mikey had told him, but he decided it wise not to ask why she lived with her. "Well then, until we can get your parents returned to you, you will stay with us. We have a spare room in case we ever have overnight guest, Donnie will show you to it." Splinter stated.

"Oh we don't want to be a bother." Liana started to refuse. "You can make it up to us by buying us some food." Raph said. "Yes the girl who usually brings it has gone on a trip with her father for the summer and the boy who also visits is with them as well." Master Splinter said, "We'll give you some money and send you up for some food, as our supplies are starting to run a bit low."

Lianna noticed Donnie's cheeks turn pink at the mention of the other girl, and she wondered if he had a bit of a crush on her. "Hurry up and show them to their room Donnie, I've got supper almost ready!" Mikey said as he danced back to the kitchen. "Right, this way ladies." Donnie said with a bow, getting a laughed from Lianna and an eye roll from Mattie. As they headed to their new temporary room, Lianna thought, "Even though we have to share a room again, at least we have each other. We will get my parents back."


	4. Chapter 4

The girls quickly got used to living with the turtles. They had been there for two weeks since the attack on them. They had met Karai, and found out that she was Splinter's daughter. She had been turned into a snake mutant at one point and then mind controlled by her false father, Shredder. The guys had secretly removed the mind control from her, allowing her to be their spy in Shredder's company.

When she heard what had happened to the girls she said she would do her best to find out what happened to them, but so far she hadn't turned up any leads. The girls noticed that Karai and Leo had something special between them, which while it surprised Lianna, Mattie said it made sense. They were both very disciplined, but they had enough differences to make the relationship something unique.

Mattie teased Leo, after Karai had left the first time, about it. He had turned beet red, surprising since you wouldn't think a turtle could turn that shade, and mumbled something like it wasn't like that. But they could tell he really did feel something for Karai, he was just in denial. They also learnt the name of the boy and girl away on the trip, Casey and April. They couldn't wait to meet them, but they wouldn't be back until school started.

"What are we going to do about school? It starts in two weeks." Lianna asked one day. Splinter said, "I will help out with the necessary paper work to get you in if you wish, or we can wait in case we find your parents." Lianna smiled and said, "You go ahead and do it, they can fix it if we find them by then." The boys had been brushing the girls up on their self-defense moves and they had been sure to keep up with their fencing.

"Great school." Said Mattie. She didn't say much, even as she grew more comfortable around the turtles. This made Lianna sad, for she remembered how her cousin had been back before her parent's deaths. She had been so bubbly and outgoing, not like this sad, sullen girl that had replaced her. Would her cousin ever be happy again? She wondered sometimes.

XXX

The next two weeks flew by with preparation for school, Sensei had allowed the turtles and girls to return to their house to gather the supplies they would need for it. On the first day of school, Mikey awoke extra early so he could make a big breakfast before their first day of school. When the girls arrived they found a huge stack of chocolate chip pancakes, bacon and eggs, with chocolate milk to drink and toast if they wanted any.

The girls practically inhaled the food, Lianna praising Mikey for his cooking prowess as they did so. Mikey was practically beaming by the time the two girls rushed off to school, Lianna hugging the turtles and Splinter before following her cousin down the sewer to the nearest man hole. They hurried to meet the school bus, glad that they had timed how long it would take them over the past few days.

The arrived just as the bus did and climbed in, taking the first two seats available that were side by side. They could feel the stares of kids on the bus, but they also noticed others keeping to themselves, at least this wasn't a small town where they had to worry about being the only new ones. Once they got off the bus, they headed to get their student id before hurrying on to their first classes of the day.

They hadn't made it far from the student id booth however, when a group of tough looking guys surrounded them. "Hey look, fresh meat." Said one. "Back off!" said Mattie. "Ohh a feisty one." Said another, "Dibs on her." "We don't want to hurt you, just let us through." Lianna stated. The group of five guys burst out laughing while the one that seemed to be the leader said, "You, hurt us?! I don't think so sister." "I'm not your sister." Lianna spat back, "Last warning move out of our way…"

"Slapshot, are you bothering these two girls." Came the voice of another girl from behind the guys. As the group spun towards the new comer, another voice to their side said, "I believe the lady asked you to move." "Jones!" growled the one called Slapshot. "Oh look is that the vice principal coming our way?" The girl spoke again. The guys, minus the one called Jones, hightailed it out of there.

"Nice one O'Neil!" Jones said. "Naturally." The red head girl said. Then she turned to Lianna and Mattie and said, "Don't mind Slapshot. He and his gang are mostly all talk. Mine name is April and this is Casey, and you are?" Lianna and Mattie's jaws almost dropped, could these be the same ones that the turtles knew? Lianna found her voice and said, "I am Lianna and this is my cousin Mattie, thanks for the assistance…" "But we could have handled them." Mattie broke in, glaring.

"Mattie! Better to end it without violence, especially on our first day here." Lianna admonished. Turning to April and Casey, she said, "I believe we may have some mutual friends. Know anyone named Mikey, Donnie, Raph, or Leo?" April and Casey's eyes widened and then narrowed as Casey asked, "Who's side are you on?" Just then the warning bell rang.

Instead of answering Casey's question she asked, "Do you guys have first lunch?" At their hesitant nods, Lianna continued and said, "We'll tell you then, we can't be late on our first day!" She grabbed her cousin's arm and pulled her along, her cousin smirking at the thought of the other two teens expressions when they had left them, a bit of curiosity mixed with some annoyance and maybe a hint of trouble.

XXX

The four teens met over lunch, and during that time the cousins gave a brief recap on how they had met the turtles, what had happened to Lianna's parents, and finally how they were living with the turtles and Splinter until they could find Lianna's parents. After the end of it all, Casey said, "Wow, it's almost like what happened with your dad when you first met the turtles April, only no aunt to take them in."

"Seems to be a terrible habit the turtles have with girls who join their side." April said dryly, though the girls could tell she didn't mean anything by it. "So you have been staying with the guys, that must be fun. How are they behaving?" April continued. "It's like having protective brothers." Lianna said, "Though I do like getting to know them and how they all tick. Mikey is hilarious, Leo is driven, Raph is hot-headed, but gentle when he needs to be, and Donnie is so studious."

At the mention of Donnie, April's cheek got a light blush on them and Lianna wondered if she shared Donnie's feelings. Just down the bell rang, letting them know it was time for their next class, so Lianna asked, "Do you want to meet outside the school after class and go see the guys with us? I know they have been anxious for your return." April and Casey agreed and then all four headed off to their classrooms.

XXX

Lianna and Mattie were the first ones to enter the lair later that day. They saw the turtles and Karai sitting on the couch, flipping through the channels, and Master Splinter walking towards the dojo. "Hey guys, you'll never guess who we ran into today at school!" Lianna said. Without looking up Raph said, "Why would we care, we wouldn't know them?" "Now I know we have been gone awhile but not that long." April said, teasing filling her voice.

All the turtles, Karai and Splinter turned towards her voice and when they saw both her and Casey standing there, they ran over to greet them. Lianna and Mattie stood there watching the exchange, both of them grinning. Soon the story of how they met was shared and Casey said something like, "Glad we showed up when we did, wouldn't want these two to get hurt."

Mattie and Lianna shared a look and Mattie grinned wickedly and nodded at her cousin. Lianna smiled back and said, "Say Casey, care to show me some moves in the dojo? It would definitely help if we run into those guys when you aren't around." The turtles, for their part kept quiet, as did Sensei, all wanting to see Casey learn a lesson about judging a book by its cover.

April, who was paying more attention to the turtles then Casey at this point, could tell by how they are acting that something was up. "Sure, I guess I could show you some moves." "Oh bring your gear, the guys say you fight with hockey sticks and such when you're with them and I want to see how you do it." Casey, who was feeling very flattered at this point, didn't see he was falling neatly into her trap. He went to grab his gear, while Mattie went to the room she and her cousin shared to grab Lianna's sword.

She kept it hidden as she joined the others in the dojo, just as Casey and Lianna walked in. The turtles sat as if they were getting taught a lesson by Splinter, and April had joined them. Mattie shrugged her shoulders and sat by April, while Master Splinter remained standing. Lianna allowed Casey to show her a few moves and pretended to me studying them carefully.

All of a sudden she jabbed her elbow into his stomach, causing him to double over as his air rushed out. She rolled over his back and held her hand towards her cousin, who tossed her the sword. Lianna pulled out the sword from its guard, tossing it to her side as Casey stood straight, having recovered his breath. His eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the sword in her hand, but when she held up her finger and motioned him to bring it, his eyes narrowed and pushed down his mask.

Reaching into his golf bag, he grabbed out a bat and shouted, "Goongala!" as he swung at her. She skillfully blocked his blows, allowing him to swing several times, before she gracefully unarmed him. Before he could reach into his bag for another weapon, she had her blade at his throat. She waited until he reluctantly lowered his arm. Then she lowered her sword and said, "Thanks for the lesson Casey." Before joining the others on the mat.

"I believe what we have here, is a very well taught lesson of don't judge a book by its cover." Sensei said, "While both you and April came to their aid, Casey, these girls could have gotten out on their own. They were just trying to avoid violence on their first day at school." Casey lowered his head at the soft rebuke, before looking up with a grin at Lianna, "I want a rematch someday." Lianna knew that was Casey's way of apologizing and so she nodded with a laugh.

Everyone headed back out to the couch as Casey and April started telling about their time away that summer. Everyone was surprised when Casey said, "I'm thinking about going back there when I graduate in the spring." April got a teasing look in her eyes as she said, "Casey met someone." As Casey cheeks grew red, Mikey asked, "What's that got to do with him going back. Ow!" Raph had slapped him on the head and said, "Not that kind of meet, genius."

"You promised you wouldn't say anything!" Casey said, as April laughed and said, "Sorry, I couldn't resist Casey! Boy you should see your face, it's almost as red as Raph's mask!" Everyone laughed at that, for it was true, and after a moment Casey joined it. Then the turtles pumped him for information on the girl, while Mattie and Lianna retired to their room to give them some time to catch up on their own. Plus they had a lot of homework to do and the day had been tiring.


	5. Chapter 5

The girls had been staying with the boys for almost a month, when Mattie suggested they all spar. The guys looked at each other before Raph said, "Not to sound like Casey or anything, but you haven't studied ninjutsu, you're not kunoichi in training like April, do you think you could stand up to our attacks?" "I don't know, let me think." Mattie said sarcastically, "We helped you with the Foot Bots when we first met you and they are programmed in ninjutsu right? I think we can hold our own with you."

Raph smirked and said, "Okay, I game." "Why don't we make it more interesting? If we can last fifteen minutes against you guys, even if it's only one of us still fighting, you have to do what we want the rest of the day, if you win, then we do what you want for the rest of the day." Lianna suggested, she always liked having to fight for something.

After the brothers all looked and nodded at each other, Leo said "Deal." while shaking Lianna's outstretched hand. The girls went and got there swords, while the brothers got their weapons. Master Splinter, hearing the movement in dojo came out to see what was going on, he agreed to act as mediator. The brothers stood on one side of the room while the cousins stood on the other. They all prepared themselves, waiting for Master Splinter's signal.

Once it was given the boys rushed the girls, whom settled into battle stances. Mikey through his kusarigama, to try and either wrap it around the girls' feet or to get them off center, while Donnie tried to whack them with his rokushakubo. The girls rolled out of the way of Mikey's attacked, and Lianna deflected Donnie's while Mattie took a stab at him. He jumped back a bit, while Raph charged forward with his sais.

He blocked an attack by Mattie, trying to Leo a chance to us his katana, but Mattie suddenly flicked her wrist just right, causing his weapons to go flying. As he stared back in surprise at Mattie, she used her self-defense lessons and kicked him, sending him outside of the area they were to stay in. Just then April, Karai and Casey walked in, just missing getting hit by Raph. "Father, what is going on here?" Karai asked.

"Raphael and his brothers challenged the girls to a fight, so far Raphael is out." Splinter replied to his daughter. "WHAT!?" Raph exclaimed, he didn't think he had come that far out of the circle. "Heads up!" yelled Mikey, before he landed heavily on Raph. "Man, these girls can kick some shell." Mikey groaned. Casey, April and Karai turned their focus back onto the fight, which now was Donnie, Leo, Mattie and Lianna.

Leo gave Donnie a hand signal, to which Donnie nodded. Leo pulled out his other katana and made his way towards the cousins. Both girls thought the other was keeping an eye on Donnie, but suddenly Lianna saw a blur of brown out of the corner of her eye. She leaped forward, shouting a warning to her cousin, but it was too late. Mattie got wacked in the side and she stumbled out of the area. That's when Lianna knew it was up to her to take these guys down, starting with Donnie, since he hit her cousin.

She knew her cousin wanted them to win badly, she herself not really caring, so she would win this contest. Donnie made an, eep, sound as he saw Lianna's gaze fall on him, her eyes narrow and dark. Really she was just doing it to psych him out, and she smirked when it worked. She reached down and picked up her cousin's weapon, then charged Donnie, swinging first one and then another sword. He back peddled as fast as he could, until suddenly the onslaught stopped.

He smiled, thinking that Leo must have stepped in, but then he realized, by the smirk on her face, that he must have stepped out of bounds. Looking down he sighed as he saw he had. He noticed the others had arrived and so he went to sit with April, who whispered, "Good try Donnie." causing him to blush. Then he focused on the two remaining fighters, interested to see who would win.

Both stood with the swords in an at ready position, waiting for either the other to make a move or for them to give them a reason to move. Then, as one, they ran towards each other, slicing, jumping, blocking, dodging, their' arms moving so fast, yet with grace. That's what Donnie loved about his brother's fighting style, he did it gracefully, and it was interesting to see Lianna was the same way. Watching the two of them was almost like watching ballet, if ballet also included a fast paced sword fight.

Both started to pant a little, Lianna could feel her energy starting to wane, and she thought, "If I could only catch him in a slip up, or if he would just try to put an end to the match, I could get him." But there was no such luck for the girl, and she could tell she was starting to lose ground. An idea popped into her head and she took a few unneeded steps back. Leo, thinking she was finally exhausted, went for his move.

At the last second, Lianna dodged out of the way and his momentum, couple with his surprise, carried Leo over the line. Lianna collapsed to her knees, taking in deep breaths, she hadn't sparred like that in a while. She also remembered why she hadn't, but she could keep it in control… she hoped. Her cousin rushed over to her, concern along with pleasure and excitement covered her face. "Thanks Lianna." She whispered, hugging her cousin, knowing that she had done it for her.

Lianna returned the hug with a smile and said, "No… problem… think… you…can let… me… get some… air now?" Mattie laughed and sat back and said, "Sorry cuz." Looking to the guys and said, "You know what this means?" Mikey groaned and said, "Makeovers?" Mattie laughed and said, "Hadn't thought of that but no." Karai raised her eyebrow at Leo, who she had walked over to check on, and he said, "Losers have to do what the Winners want for the rest of the day." "Why didn't we think of this ages ago April?" Karai asked.

April laughed and said, "I don't know, it's a really good idea." While they were talking, Lianna said, "We can do what you want first." Mattie gave her another concerned look, but at Lianna's smile, she said to the boys, "You ready for our first thing?" an evil smile crossing her face. "Umm… no?" Mikey said with a scared tone.

"That's too bad, because up first is… Marvel Movie Marathon!" Mikey started bouncing up and down saying, "Please say you're not joshing, please say you're not joshing!" Mattie laughed and said, "You go the popcorn while I get the movie set up." Mikey went running out of the room, whooping at the top of his lungs. "You're welcome to join us." Mattie said to the other humans, to which they all nodded eagerly and followed her out of the room along with the turtles.

Splinter noticed Lianna still on the floor and walked over to her, kneeling in front of her. "What's wrong Lianna?" he asked, letting his concern for her fill his voice. "It's nothing Master Splinter, just an old injury acting up." She answered, "Back in Los Angeles I got someone mad at me from a rival fencing academy, during our spar in a competition, she rigged her blade so that the guard would fall of the tip of her sword which she had sharpened. It punctured my lung and the doctors said I was lucky to have made it. It healed funny though, so when I exert myself to much it takes a long while for my breathing to return to normal and I can lose consciousness sometimes. Please don't tell the others, I don't like it when people take it easy on me because of it. Even Mattie doesn't know."

The rat looked at her for a moment and said, "I will not tell them, but I really think you should, especially if you wish to join them in search of your parents." "What do you mean?" Lianna asked. Yes she wanted to help them look for her parents, but she had never said it out loud. "I have seen the way you look when my sons head off to look for them. You and Mattie have both proved you can hold your own. When next they go out, you two may join them."

Tears filled Lianna's eyes and she grabbed the rat in a hug. "Thank you Sensei!" She whispered. The rat hugged her in return before saying, "So what are these Marvel movies like?" She laughed and said, "Oh you will love them Sensei!"

XXX

Hours later they finished Ant Man, which Mattie had somehow gotten her hands on. "That was awesome! And you said there's a TV show that goes along with it!?" Mikey exclaimed. "Yep Agents of Shield, your favorite character makes a comeback Mikey." Lianna answered. "Now I've got to see it!" he said. Everyone stood up and stretched, they had been sitting for a long time when Mattie looked at the clock she said, "Oh no, Lianna I'm sorry, you didn't get to do what you wanted to do."

Lianna smiled at her cousin and said, "It's alright, I love the Marvel movies too." "Still…" Mattie started to say. Leo, who had shared a look with his brothers, broke in and said, "We can do Lianna's tomorrow. We don't mind, gives us something to do on the weekend." Lianna smiled and said, "Thanks guys, we'll have to take turns for mine. See you in the morning." With that she headed to the bedroom she and Mattie were staying in, leaving the others looking at each other questioningly.

XXX

When the guys woke up, they walked out to find Karai, Casey and April already there, also eager to see what Lianna's choice was. Lianna came out of the kitchen and said, "Breakfast is served!" Everyone followed her and were amazed to find a huge Sunday Breakfast spread. There was toast and eggs and pancakes, bacon, sausage, oatmeal and French toast, all in huge quantities. There was also some fruit and choices of milk, juice (apple and orange), or coffee for everyone. Mattie pulled some biscuits out of the oven to top everything off.

"You made all of this?!" Mikey practically shouted, "You are now the new kitchen masters!" Everyone laughed and then sat down to eat. In a shorter time then it took to make it, everything was eaten, minus a few sausages and biscuits. "Oh that was so good! I can never go back to Mickey's cooking now!" Raph stated. "I would be offended, but I have to agree with you bro." Mikey replied. Lianna laughed while Mattie said, "Don't get too used to it fellas, we have to go to school, so that means you are still stuck with cooking."

They groaned good naturedly and offered to help clean up. Lianna slipped away while everyone did just that, Mattie covering for her so that she wasn't missed until it was almost done, and only then it was when she slipped back in. "Where did you go off to?" Donnie asked. "Just to my room for a minute." Lianna answered simply, not saying anything more. Soon enough they found out though. As they headed back into the main room, Lianna led them to the couch and handed a remote to each of the turtles.

"Get ready to play Diddy Kong Racing!" Lianna said, "Winner takes on three others of their choice." They spent a long time playing it, even Master Splinter got in on the action. "We need to make bets and lose to the girls more often!" Mikey said after everyone had decided they had played enough. Everyone laughed and Mattie said, "I could get used to that!" "We should do this every weekend!" Raph said.

"Which the competition or one day of movies and the other of games?" asked Lianna from her place on the couch beside Mikey, whom had been her most well matched competitor on the game. "The competition, though it probably would lead to those two as well." Raph stated. "Next time, let us join in the fun." Casey said, "It could be, Karai and O'Neil on one team, Mattie and Lianna on another, and you turtles on a third." "Yeah, we could go free for all style to sometimes!" Mattie said, getting into the idea.

They looked at Master Splinter asking his permission and he said, "So long as you kids keep up your schoolwork and you, my sons, keep up your training, I have no problem with this." Lianna jumped up and hugged him while the others cheered. Then they started discussing plans for next time.


	6. Chapter 6

Guest I am glad you are enjoy the story! I hope you continue to!

XXX

The next day, after they got back from school, Lianna and Mattie, along with April and Casey, went and joined the boys in the dojo. Today they were all going to be practicing hand to hand combat, something the girls were really looking forward to since all they really knew was what they needed for self-defense. Sensei put them in pairs, Leo with Raph, Mikey with Donnie, April with Karai, and Mattie with Lianna. Casey, gulped as Master Splinter said he would be with him.

They squared off and followed Splinter's instructions, first in slow motion and then as fast as they could. Even though he was dealing with Casey, Splinter would shout out correctments to those who weren't doing it quite right, etc. Lianna hoped to one day be so good with her sword as Splinter was in hand to hand, so that way she could be able to notice everything around her. After a few hours of that, Splinter called a halt, not letting on that he could hear Lianna's slightly labored breathing.

He headed to his room, while Raph said to the group, "Well that was a nice warm up, who wants to do some more?" Lianna shook her head and said teasingly, "There is one too many for us to pair off, so I will take the sidelines this time and keep you all honorable." Nobody noticed her struggling to take deep breaths, so when Karai said she had to be going so that Shredder wouldn't get suspicious, the others talked Lianna into joining them.

They agreed that two blows and you were out, unless one blow came from someone else. It had to be two blows from the same person. "Free for all?" asked Raph. Leo nodded and Raph smiled as he said, "Alright!" Everyone got into their own spot, before Lianna called out, "Go!" It was obvious Leo wanted a rematch with her, for he came at her, swinging his swords, for they had also agreed to weapons. She jumped back, not having to worry about an out of bounds area this time, just trying to keep her movements few and gentle.

But Leo kept coming and so she kept blocking, wishing that one of the others would use him being distracted to get to hits in, but they were busy with each other. As she blocked both of his swords overhead, she suddenly found she couldn't draw any breath. She dropped her sword, grabbing for the nearest thing, which was Leo, to stabilize herself, gasping the whole time.

Leo instantly came out of his battle zone, dropping his own swords safely to side as he exclaimed, "Lianna! What's wrong?" "Can't… breathe…" she got out. Splinter, having heard Leo's call along with the others, came rushing out of his room. "Don't panic Lianna, relax it will help your breath come back to you." He said gently. Lianna nodded as a tear slipped from her eye. The others gathered closely, but not to close, Mattie clinging unknowingly to Raph's arm as she stared at her cousin.

Soon Lianna found it easier to breathe, but it still was hard, she just didn't feel like she was dying for lack of air anymore. Splinter noticed this and said, "Take her to her room Leonardo and let her get some rest." Leo nodded and carried her to her room, laying her on her bed and covering her with a blanket. She smiled gratefully at him before slipping off to sleep, the stress and fear of losing her breath having wiped her out.

When he came out of the girls' room, he found Raph awkwardly comforting Mattie. "She's okay Mattie, she'll be fine." He said, patting her back carefully. "But she almost wasn't Raph, and then I would be really alone, especially if we don't find her parents." "What happened to her Master Splinter?" Donnie asked. "That is something to ask her when she awakens, my son." Leo could tell Splinter knew, but he was leaving it for Lianna to tell.

XXX

Lianna awoke later that day to find Mikey staring down at her. The look on his face, coupled with the relief that she could breathe normally again, caused her to laugh. "You're awake! Finally!" Mikey said. She moved to get up, but Mikey picked her up instead, eager to show the others she was awake, she laughed as he ran to the living room saying "Hey guys, she's awake!"

Everyone came to where Mikey had deposited her on the couch, Mattie rushing up and giving her a bear hug. Donnie was the first to ask what they were all thinking. "What happened Lianna?" Lianna sighed, not wanting to tell them but knowing she had no choice. "It's an old fencing injury is all." She tried to brush it off. "How the heck could you get that injured from fencing?!" asked Mattie, "Our safety gear is to stop that kind of stuff from happening. Explain cousin."

Lianna sighed while looking down, and said, "A year before you moved in with us, I was in a competition. I had made the girl I was up against mad a few days prior, and so she rigged it so her guard on the point would come off during our match. She also sharpened said point, so that when the guard came off and she stabbed me it went through the gear, and punctured a lung. The injury healed weird and if I push myself to hard it causes breathing problems and I can even lose consciousness. It's my fault it happened today, I felt it happening and I still pushed it. I shouldn't have joined you guys in that last round."

"Why didn't you say anything Dudette? Mikey asked. "I don't like it when people take it easy on me. It happened after I went back to my academy after I recovered enough. That's why I had changed academies Mattie, before you moved in, because I just couldn't take any more of the easing up on me. I like being pushed to my highest point." Lianna said, finally looking back up into their faces, relieved to see no pity there.

Leo pulled Splinter aside and asked quietly, "Couldn't the healing hands work? Could they fix her lung even though it's been years now?" "It's possible, the healing hands do a lot of good, it would take several times of doing the healing hands before we would even know. Leonardo, I have already told her, even after knowing this, that she could go with you on your next outing to look for her parents. Do not tell her no when it's time to do so." Splinter replied.

Leo nodded, though he wasn't too sure if Lianna should until she was better. Returning to the group surrounding the girl, Leo said, "Sensei and I think the healing hands might help you, but it will take several times before if we know they are even working and many more for them to do their full work if it is so. Donnie will take an X-Ray before do the first round, if you want us to try which I am sure you will, and will check after we have done it for several days."

Lianna hugged the turtle and said, "Thank you Leonardo!" He hugged her back and he said, with amusement hitting his voice, "Don't thank me yet, you are on rest for the rest of the day." He held up a hand to silence her protest as she pulled away from the hug she was giving, and said, "Only so you can be well rested when we go out looking for your parents tomorrow night, providing you don't get to much school work to join us." She waved her hand and said, "I was fortunate to get study period for my final time slot of the day, I get all my homework done then unless it's something big or a test to study for."

Then she hugged the blue mask turtle again saying, "Thank you Leo." Pulling away she continued, addressing all the turtles as she said, "Much as I love living with you guys, I will be so happy when we get my parents back." Raph, who was standing on one side of the couch saw a flash of sadness cross Mattie's face, and he remembered what she had said about being alone. He knew Mattie lived with Lianna and her parents but he didn't know why and curiosity got the better of him, instead of Donnie, this time.

"Mattie, why do you live with Lianna?" he asked carefully. Mattie shot him a look, one that spoke of hurt and loss, before looking down at her cousin who had taken her hand. Lianna nodded at Mattie and she sighed, sinking onto the couch by her cousin. She looked at the floor, debating on whether or not she really wanted to tell.

Finally she took a breath and said "Almost four years ago, there was an earthquake. We were living near a little town, out in the country since my parents loved it so much. We didn't have much in emergency vehicles, and the ones we had were tied up elsewhere. The earthquake broke a gas line and an aftershock caused a spark, which ignited a fire. My parents didn't make it out of our house." The last part was barely a whisper. April came and sat on the couch next to the girls, giving Mattie a one arm hug over her shoulder.

"She moved in with me and my parents, and we have become more and more like sisters every day." Said Lianna. Mattie smiled at her cousin and said, "We have, haven't we. There isn't much I would give that up for, Lianna, but if I could have my parents alive, I would be with them in an instant." Lianna hugged her cousin on her other shoulder and said, "I know, I wouldn't want it any other way." Lianna couldn't believe she had opened up about what had happened. She hoped it was a sign her cousin was healing.


	7. Chapter 7

Lianna was so happy to be with the guys as they searched for her parents. "Even if they don't find them tonight," she thought, "I think this outing was good for both me and Mattie." Mattie seemed to becoming something of a mix between her old and new self, after opening up about what happened to her parents. She was able to tease kindly, though sometimes she still got into it with Raph. Lianna couldn't help but wonder if something was sparking between those two.

XXX

Their search had been unsuccessful that night, but Lianna had hope that someday they would find them. The guys were on patrol when she and Mattie got back from school, and remained so well after they had gone after to bed. Sometime in the early morning, Lianna woke to the sounds of sniffles, as if someone were trying to keep quiet while doing so. Slipping out of her room without waking Mattie, she headed to the main room.

It took her a minute to spot Mikey, his head in his hands, on the couch, shoulders shaking with suppressed sobs. Lianna walked up to him and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, before sitting down next to him on the couch. Mikey was to embarrassed at being caught crying to look at her, as Lianna asked, "What's wrong Mikey? Did you have a bad dream?"

Mikey shook his head no before saying, "The guys think I'm a big joke. They tease me and say I am dumb. Who knows maybe I am. Maybe I should go live in Dimension X, at least there I am a genius!" Lianna hugged Mikey tightly for a moment, searching for the right words, before saying, "Can I tell you a secret?" Mikey's interest was caught and he nodded.

"Before I moved here, I was just like you Mikey. I was the goofy one that everyone teased but they laughed and I loved making people laugh, so even though their words hurt I still did it. Everyone thought I was dumb, mainly cause I'm blond I think, and those comments hurt the worse, especially when it was my friends who said it. One day, after my friends had said just one too many blond jokes, I burst into tears. They were shocked, they didn't realize their words were hurting me as they weren't being serious when they said them."

"Now some of the people who said the words, really meant what they said, and they would still tease me unmercifully, but sometimes you just have to ignore them; especially if you know they are doing it just to hurt you. They love the reaction they get from you and that's why they do it. With the help of my friends, I made the other ones teasing me eat their words, as I had the highest grades in the class when I left."

"I don't know where this Dimension X is Mikey, but even if whatever causes you to be smart there were to suddenly come into effect here, they would probably just find something else to tease you about. You tease Raph about his temper after all. Besides, if you went to live there, who would I play video games with that match my skill level?"

Mikey smiled at that and gave her a hug, saying "Thank you Lianna, that really helped." She hugged him back and said, "Anytime Mikey. Now you and I better get some sleep. I hear you have training in the morning and I have school." Mikey groaned, causing Lianna to chuckle cause that was just how she felt.

XXX

The next morning as Leo was walking by her room, Lianna pulled him into it and shut the door. "Leo, I need to talk to you for a minute." She said. She told him about finding Mikey crying last night and how he had thought about going to Dimension X, just so he could be smart again. "He is really hurting Leo. Sometimes the people the laugh the most are the ones that are hurting the most. I really think you should talk to and apologize to him, it would go a long way right now."

Leo looked embarrassed that he hadn't noticed his own brother's discomfort and nodded before leaving the room, determined to have a talk with Mikey. Lianna smiled as he left, hoping that the brothers would all smooth things over with Mikey.

XXX

As April walked into the lab after school that day, she heard Donnie singing softly, "I really really really really really really like you, and I want you. Do you want me? Do you want me too?" She chuckled and said, "I guess the girls' type of music is rubbing off on you, huh Donnie?" "A..a…aa… April! When did you get here?" She smiled and said, "Just a few minutes ago."

"Oh that's good… umm… to answer your question, I guess so. The beat to that song is really catchy and the words are easy to remember." Donnie rambled. "I agree." She replied, setting her school books down on Donnie's desk so she could do her homework away from the noise in the rest of the lair. Unlike Lianna, she wasn't lucky enough to have study hall in her final period so she ended up bringing her homework home with her.

Donnie returned to working on the experiment he was working on, the blush on his face refusing to disappear. Before she dug into her homework, April looked up at him and said, "You have a really good singing voice Donnie." "Thh…aaanks April." Donnie stuttered, growing redder if that was even possible. April focused on her books, not noticing a few minutes later when she started humming the same song Donnie had been singing.

XXX

Days flew by, some were spent in searching for Lianna's parents, others with just routine patrols, the weekends always being a competition to see who would get to decide what to do. This weekend it was going to be a free for all, the first one they had done and Lianna was hoping she would win. The last few times it had been the turtles or April and the others who won, making it seem like Lianna and Mattie could only win against four opponents. She was determined that either she or Mattie were to win this one.

She heard the others getting up and smiled as she finished the breakfast she had been making, too nervous to sleep long. April and Casey arrived rubbing sleep from their eyes, while Karai arrived looking like she had been up all night and was still fresh as a daisy. Mattie stumbled into the kitchen, she wasn't really a morning a person, once in a blue moon she would wake up ready to start the day, but other than that, zip.

Mikey practically floated into the kitchen, his nose was so high in the air as he sniffed and said, "Oh something smells so good!" Lianna laughed and said, have a seat Mikey. Once he did he held up his plate with a pleading look. He had seen Lianna flip a pancake once and ever since then he had wanted her to do it to his plate. She would shake her head and say there were too many other heads in the way. This time though, Mikey was the only one in the kitchen.

Lianna smiled as she turned back to the stove before flipping the pancake over her shoulder to the table, knowing Mikey would catch it. She didn't realize that the others had all walked in, they hadn't believed Mikey when he said she could do it, and so they were standing there staring. As Lianna turned around she noticed them and blushed as she said, "What?"

"We just didn't think Mikey was telling the truth is all." Casey stated. "What about my mad pancake flipping skills? Oh he was, I just haven't wanted to do it in case anyone stood up suddenly. Have a seat." She said as she turned back to the stove to take the last pancake out of the pan. Everyone dug in and helped clean up before heading to the dojo.

Everyone headed towards the same spots they had been the day Lianna collapsed. She was so thankful that upon X-raying her yesterday, Donnie said the healing hands were making remarkable progress on fixing it, showing the difference to her since her first X-ray. She had to say, she did find it easier to breathe these days.

They got into position and Splinter told them to start. April took on Donnie and Casey, while Karai took Leo, Raph went after Mattie, leaving Mikey and Lianna to face each other. She could see in his eyes that Mikey was scared of her, and she smiled gently at him. She wouldn't mind if Mikey won, but she had the perfect plan for what to do, so she knew she had to take him down.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw April take Donnie down, not that he put up much of a fight against her. Poor Donnie, his crush on April really hampered him in these fights. Casey, having no such qualms however was proving more difficult. Lianna focused on Mikey again just as he attacked with his nunchaku. She blocked with her sword and got in one hit. Mikey panicked a bit, and though she hated to do it to him, she saw her opening and went for it, landing her second and final blow on Mikey.

He sighed and went and joined Donnie, Mattie and Karai. Casey and April were still at it, while Raph and Leo had started in. Lianna made her way behind Casey and got two swift hits on him before he could even turn around. She looked at April and nodded, receiving a nod in return, they would go after Raph and Leo while they were distracted, but then the truce would be over.

Both of them got two swift hits on the guys, whose worlds had narrowed just to each other as their brotherly rivalry took over. They mentally beat themselves for losing focus as April and Lianna squared off. April paused long enough to listen, to make sure Lianna's breathing was okay, though she didn't let on what she was waiting for. Once she was sure she was fine, she headed in with her fan, sparks flying as Lianna deflected in with her sword.

As April flipped backwards, she didn't move fast enough before Lianna could land her first blow. April got in hers though by throwing her fan and while Lianna raised her sword to block it, April got in a blow with her hand. But she had broken the first rule of being a ninja, she had thrown away her weapon and Lianna stood guard over it so she couldn't retrieve it.

She moved in to try to get her with a hit or kick, but Lianna used her sword's length to get in her final hit. Sensei called end and said, "The winner is Lianna." Mattie cheered for her cousin and the others had to admit, they were fine with that considering what things she and Mattie had picked when it was their turn. She said, "Okay, first some card games. Anything, Old Maid, War, as long as you are playing a group. No solitaire." They played card games until supper time, switching partners and groups often, though they all play a big round of Gold Fish where they stacked four decks and you only needed two to make a pair.

As everyone got up to head into the kitchen, Lianna jumped in front of them and said, "For supper, we're going to Mr. Murakami-san's and having anything you want, I for one am going with Pizza Gyoza." Everyone cheered and headed towards the lair's entrance. Lianna shyly pulled out a cape for Master Splinter to wear so people couldn't see he was a rat. He thanked her, happy to be able to go to out to eat with his sons.

Later as they all laughed and ate, Lianna thought to herself, "I don't know what I am going to do with my time tomorrow, but I do know it's been fun hanging out with my family." She stopped herself and thought, "When did they become family to me? Even Karai who isn't always around is like a sister to me. Oh why does it matter when, because it's true. These guys have become my family and I hope that Mattie and I have become a part of theirs."


	8. Chapter 8

Halloween was fast approaching and Lianna was beginning to doubt that they would ever find her parents. Why had Shredder taken them in the first place? It couldn't be just because of her and Mattie helping out the turtles could it? Her dad's work never even called to check and see why he hadn't shown up; a man who had given many years to the company doesn't show up for work and they don't even call?

Lianna had so many questions and she let out a sigh, causing her cousin to look at her and ask, "Mattie have you even been listening to me?" Lianna shook her head, trying to clear her mind as she said, "Sorry Mattie, what did you say?" Mattie smiled at her cousin and said, "We have to get the guys to go out during Halloween! It's like the one night of the year where people wouldn't question them." April nodded and said, "Casey and I have tried for years, but we can't get any of them even slightly interested in it besides Mikey."

Lianna said, "Hold that thought." While she checked something on her computer. As she finished she smiled and said, "Guess what guys? Halloween falls on a Saturday this year." "That means we just have to beat out the turtles when we fight that weekend and they'll have to go out with us!" April said. "Okay nobody mention Halloween around them or even your costumes or candy. They probably won't even think of it if nobody mentions it around them." Mattie said. "This is gonna be sweet!" Casey said.

They were all eating lunch together, while Lianna worked to perfect her English report. They discussed costume ideas, Casey was going as a hockey player, no surprise there. The girls were all still undecided. Just as the bell rang, Mattie said, "Oh someone should contact Karai and see whose side she is on for Halloween!" "I'll do it!" Lianna said, pulling out her phone. "Meet me at Mr. Murakami-san's after I'm done with school today?" Karai replied saying she would.

XXX

They day had come to beat the turtles so that they would have to go out for Halloween. Karai, once she said she loved Halloween had been informed of the plan to make the turtles go out on Halloween. She had rubbed her hands gleefully and said, "Sign me up!" The fight was supposedly their three groups against each other, but only Karai and Lianna would briefly fight each other to keep up appearances.

Poor Donnie was get an April and Casey team up, April was going to distract while Casey went in for the hits. Mattie said she was going to take Raph out, while Karai and Lianna would break off from fighting each other to go after Leo and Mikey. After that, it was just going to be a who cares, we're all on the same page, free for all.

It worked out well, all the turtles being the first to get knocked out. Mattie ended up being the last one standing, taking the win for team cousins. "So what are we doing this weekend?" Raph asked. "Well until it gets dark we're going to play video games." Lianna said. "After dark, we are going trick or treating, its candy time boys!" Mattie finished. The turtles saw that they were trapped, one of the rules being you couldn't back out of doing someone else's thing, (unless it was something you were really afraid of like heights, cockroaches, etc.).

Mikey said, "Alright! Finally we get to go up during Halloween! I am going to get all the candy Bwahahahaa." Lianna laughed at Mikey while Raph glared and murmured under his breath about being set up. Leo looked worried, "Won't people still freak out?" "Not if you play it off as a costume." Karai said, "There are some pretty outrageous outfits out there tonight. Just don't attack unless you're really sure they are bad guys, some people love them some villains."

Leo smiled at Karai and Mattie mouthed aww to Lianna, who nodded her head in agreement. They really were cute together. "So umm, what should we say we are if people ask?" Donnie asked. "Just say you're Ninja Turtles, and if they say that's weird or something like that, you can just say you couldn't decide." April said. "Now on to more important matters, video games!" Mikey called.

With a brief stop for lunch, they played racing games, etc. until it was almost dark, than the others went to change, getting their stuff from where they had stashed it in the girls' room. Casey walked out in a hockey outfit, not surprising the turtles at all. Karai was wearing a Maleficent outfit, showing her love of villains. April had decided on being Super Girl. The cousin's came out at the same time, Lianna as Princess Peach and Mattie as Roxas, her favorite character in Kingdom Hearts.

When they got to the surface, they decided to split up, cover more ground and increase their chances of getting a better variety. Donnie, Casey and April went one way, Leo and Karai another, Raph and Mattie still another and Mikey and Lianna yet another. The guys had their shell phones just in case they needed each other.

They had a wonderful time, all of them getting compliments on their costumes. When they met back up, Mikey found he was the only one who hadn't been asked what he was supposed to be. Lianna laughed and said, "Since I was Princess Peach, they naturally assumed Mikey was Bowser." Everyone laughed as they thought of Mikey being Bowser, that would be quite the sight!

In the lair they used Donnie's X-Ray machine on the candy to make sure it was safe and threw out anything they weren't too sure on. Then they divided their candy amongst themselves, finding that their idea of splitting up paid off as they got ton of different kinds of candy. Once they had eaten themselves into a sugar coma, they crashed where they were, too tired and high on sugar to attempt to move anywhere.

XXX

When April opened her eyes the next morning, she barely kept herself from gasping, for Donnie's face was inches from hers. He was still sleeping and she didn't want to disturb him, but if he or any of the others woke up it would be really embarrassing. Then she looked around a bit and thought, "Or not." Besides Casey, everyone was in an awkward position. Suddenly she noticed Casey smiling and realized he had been the first to wake up. "Well this will be interesting." She thought.

Sure enough moments later everyone's cellphones buzzed at the same time, startling the others awake. Everyone quickly moved, blushes crossing all of their faces, but Casey's, as they went to check their phones. Then their faces got even redder as they saw the pictures Casey had sent, for not only had he gotten a group shot, but an image of each "couple".

Mikey had one arm over Lianna, Donnie and April were practically nose to nose, Leo and Karai were spooning and Raph had hugged Mattie against him. As they glanced up from their phones, Casey ducked into the dojo, making for Master Splinters room. "You're dead Jones!" Raph shouted as he and the others gave chase, minus Mikey and Lianna, who were laughing too hard, commenting how the pictures looked extra ridiculous because nobody had changed from their costumes.

XXX

Lianna printed some pictures from her phone on her personal printer, including the group shot from Halloween and all the individual ones. Then she got her scrapbooking stuff out and set about putting her memories of her time with the turtles, thus far, down to memory. It was a snow day, so she and Mattie were off from school, she didn't know what Mattie was doing with her newly found free time, but this was something she had been wanting to do for a while. Casey, April and Karai were all also somewhere in the lair.

Around lunch time she finished up her project, happy with how it was coming so far. She left the book on her bed, while she went to make some lunch. Mikey was already in there, trying to decide what to fix. At Lianna's suggestion of grilled cheese sandwiches his eyes lit up, he loved those! Lianna smiled as he hurried about the kitchen, getting the pan, bread, cheese and butter. Out of all the brothers, Lianna felt the closest to Mikey. Maybe it was because of how the teasing had affected him a while ago, or maybe it was his goofiness, but whatever it was, she didn't really know.

Whatever it was, after lunch it drove her to show him her scrapbook. Mikey smiled and laughed at the memories, and pointing things out that he hadn't noticed that were mentioned in her notes. She had taken pictures of the weekend winners each time and had noted the dates on which they had won under each picture in her scrapbooks. Mattie had sent her a picture of her beating Casey back when they had first met and she had printed that out too, enjoying the look on his face.

Soon others came to see what had Mickey laughing so and so they all were laughing or making comments themselves. Everyone but Casey and Splinter blushed a bit as they came to the day after Halloween pictures, but all admitted what Mikey and Lianna had said about them earlier, that they were extra funny since no one was out of costume.

Nobody noticed Sensei set his camera on his phone to a timer, or him slipping back into the group staring down at the album with them and laughing just as the picture was taken. After the whole scrapbook thus far had been looked at, he sent it to Lianna to have her add it to the scrapbook. Without thinking, as she was writing underneath the picture, she wrote My Second Family, looking at our scrapbook.

She left the scrapbook out as she went to make dinner. Mikey came along, wanting to read some of the inscriptions again as he found them hilarious. He sat down on the couch with his brothers and started flipping through it again. They didn't pay much attention to him until he suddenly said, "Hey I didn't see this picture befo..." Curious as to what that may be and why Mickey trailed off, they all leaned towards the book. The photo was all of them looking at the scrapbook, but then they saw it wasn't that that had caught Mikey's eyes.

They all read it softly together, "My second family." They felt honored and thrilled that she considered them her family, for truthfully they had felt the same towards Mattie and her for weeks themselves. They hadn't noticed their Sensei come behind them until he said, "Our family keeps growing, my sons. First it was you four, then April and Casey, then Karai came back to me, and now we have Lianna and Mattie as a part of our family. Throw in our mutant friends who we are close to and we are rich in family members." "Dinners ready!" Lianna yelled from the kitchen and the boys all started, so involved in the scrapbook and the father's words were they. Mikey was the first to recover and he went bounding towards the kitchen, gathering Lianna in a bear hug. She laughed and said, "What's this all about Mikey?" As she leaned back to see his face. "You're our family too."

Lianna smiled as tears filled her eyes, though they didn't spill, and she said, "I'm glad you feel the same way, now help me get everything on the plates so we can feed everyone coming in." Soon everyone was in the kitchen, eating from the plates Lianna and Mikey had filled. Lianna smiled, looking around the table, looking at her second family.


	9. Chapter 9

Mattie checked the shopping list Lianna had given her. Thanksgiving was fast approaching, just two days away and Lianna and April were busy baking at April's house. They wanted to surprise the guys with a Thanksgiving dinner. Karai had volunteered to bring the turkey in in the early morning hours since she was the highly skilled ninja out of the group. Most of the stuff they would cook that morning, but they were getting a head start on desserts.

So far they had made Pumpkin Rolls and Pumpkin Pie, now the other girls were working on Pecan Pie and Apple Turnovers, so that hopefully there would be something for everyone. Mattie was getting the turnips, squash, bread, potatoes, etc. for the rest of the meal. They were going to make homemade stuffing with Mattie's favorite seasoning.

When she finally reached the checkout, the cashier shook his head at the mounds of food and said, "You must have a lot of family coming in." Mattie nodded and said, "Yeah, I am hoping we got enough here cause looking at it all it still doesn't feel like enough. But we'll probably have enough leftovers to have another meal in the end." She finished with a laugh. The cashier nodded and said, "Same thing happens at our house every year."

Soon she had piled everything into the back of the taxi that was going to take her to April's, the cabbie driver helping her both load and unload the groceries when they got there. "Thank you." Mattie said, giving him an extra big tip, for there were quite a few bags. Casey came along just then and grabbed a few bags to help her get them inside. When they got into the kitchen it looked like a war zone. There was flour everywhere, even on the two girls.

"What happened?" Mattie asked, standing there staring, forgetting about the bags in her hands. Lianna looked up and pushed her blond braid to the other side of her head as she said, "It was my fault. We were getting warm so I went to turn on the fan. Only I forgot about the flour had spilled and, well, you can see what happened yourself." Mattie burst out laughing, only just managing to carefully put her bags down. She pulled out her phone and took a picture saying, "Another picture for your album, cuz."

Lianna rolled her eyes, but she had to admit it would make a great before picture. "On the upside, we did get everything baked before this happened." April said. Casey and Mattie helped them finish cleaning up the flour after they had finished putting away the groceries. As they sat on April's couch, after both April and Lianna had beat the flour of themselves and each other, Mattie asked, "So who all is coming for Thanksgiving?"

"There's all of us that are usually there, plus my dad and the four Mutanimals." "So we're cooking for fifteen humans and mutants?" Lianna asked. "I hope we have enough food…" Mattie said staring at the kitchen. "We may need a second turkey, I mean Leatherhead could eat one on his own!" Casey said. April sighed and said, "You're probably right. I'll text Karai and ask her about picking up another turkey."

XXX

Thanksgiving morning came and Karai not only brought one extra turkey, but two. It turned out to be a good thing, cause the smell of the food made everyone really hungry. Lianna took a picture of the spread before anyone touched it, then another as the others were busy eating, not even noticing her standing there taking it and then one more after they had stuffed themselves silly with both the food and dessert. There was hardly a crumb left anywhere.

Everyone went to take nap, with their bellies so full of turkey. Lianna couldn't sleep, so she printed off the pictures, including the one Mattie had taken and sent to her during the flour explosion and added them to her scrapbook, putting little notes around each one. She added the names of the Mighty Mutanimals, both to help her remember them and for them to feel included.

When she was finished, she still couldn't sleep, so she took her scrapbook and put it where Mikey would see it when he woke up, he loved it just as much as she did. Then she started cleaning. Soon Karai and Leo joined her, both still alert because of their strong ninja sense, and they had the cleanup done in no time. The others started stirring from their naps, and Lianna knew when Mikey saw the scrapbook as he left off a happy squeal.

He showed Leatherhead, who was the only one really interested in it out of the Mutanimals, at least at first. As both Mikey and Leatherhead started laughing, it finally drew not only them, but everyone else. They started over so everyone could see everything, and by the time they got to the one of Lianna and April covered in flour, not a single eye was dry from the tears that came with laughing too hard. Soon those who didn't live at the lair had to leave, Casey had to go to another meal with his family, groaning at the thought of putting more food in his mouth.

XXX

Two nights later the girls joined the boys on patrol. With no school and having already finished their homework, they were bored so Master Splinter consented to letting them tag along. Lianna took a group shot of them, since this was their first time just patrolling with the boys, the other times they had gone out being when they had a small lead on where her parents might be.

So far everything had been quiet, which according to Donnie was relatively normal, they didn't usually run into trouble. Before leaving the lair, Leo had reminded them that if they saw Karai while they were out in about, she would have to fight them to put on a good show. Mattie had teased him about it, saying "Oh don't worry we won't hurt your girlfriend."

As Leo had turned red, Raph had gave her a fist bump while she smirked at poor Leo. Lianna rolled her eyes, trying to hide her smile. Anyways now they were jumping from roof to roof, the thrill never got old for Lianna. She suddenly stopped, feeling like eyes were watching her. Foot Bots landed all around her, and so she drew her sword. She didn't take time to look and see where the others were, her full concentration was on the Foot.

In fact the others hadn't noticed she had stopped, nor did they hear the Foot surround her. The kept roofing hopping for several blocks before Mikey turned to say something to her and realized she wasn't there. "Um guys… Where did Lianna go?" He asked. The others looked around them and a look of fear crossed Mattie's face, causing Raph to put a hand on her arm for reassurance.

"Maybe she stopped to tie her shoe or something." Donnie suggested so they headed back the way they had come. They came to a roof where they knew she must have been, but now all that was there were some Foot Bot parts and her sword. At the sight of her cousin's sword, Mattie broke down, burying her face in Raph's arm, as he was the nearest turtle to her.

Raph looked uncomfortable as he asked, "So what now Fearless?" Leo held up his hand, causing the others to fall silent. They heard a noise coming from the fire escape and suddenly Lianna popped into view, followed by Jack Kurtzman. Mikey tackled Lianna in a hug and said, "Don't scare me like that, I thought the Foot got you." Mattie also joined Mikey's hug tackle of Lianna while Leo said, "Thank you Kurtzman. How did you come to help Lianna?"

"I heard the commotion on my roof and when I had opened my window, intending to go up and check it out, this girl came running down the fire escape. I motioned her in and closed the window and curtain behind her. The Foot Bots kept going." "Oh so this is Kurtzman, we were sorry you couldn't join us for Thanksgiving, but are also glad you got to visit family." Lianna said from where she was still being hugged by Mikey and Mattie.

They talked with Kurtzman for a few minutes, before deciding that they had had enough of an adventure for the night, and so they headed to the sewers. Lianna, the last one on the roof, hugged Kurtzman and said, "Thanks again for the save." Before quickly taking a picture with him and heading after the others.

XXX

November turned into December, and with it came snow. The air was cold, like Jack Frost nipping at your nose cold and the girls found that the sewer was an amazingly warm place to be as the days got colder, no wonder the turtles loved living here! Well besides the fact that they were mutants. School was school, getting harder to concentrate on with Christmas vacation coming up, the girls couldn't believe they had been living with the turtles for months now! It didn't seem that long at all.

But it also brought out thoughts of where the Shredder could have possibly have put Lianna's parents that the turtles hadn't found them yet. "We're running out of places to look for them." Leo said, discouragement filling his voice as he continued, "We have checked every place the Shredder has ever kept anyone, even some places where we didn't think they could possibly be." "What if they aren't even here anymore? I mean they could be in Japan or just about anywhere about now." Raph stated.

They were having this talk while the girls were at school so that they wouldn't get discouraged any more than they already were. "If only we had something to go on, anything, we could probably figure it out." Donnie said. "Well why don't you check where Lianna's dad worked. Lianna said they were moved here by job orders, and yet nobody called asking where he was when he went missing." Mikey said nonchalantly as he randomly twirled his nunchaku.

His brothers all turned to stare at him as Donnie said, "Mikey, I can't believe I am saying this, but you're a genius!" He scooted off to the lab to do some research online, leaving Mikey standing there saying, "I am? Ow!" The exclamation coming as his nunchaku hit him in the head.

XXX

As the cousins walked into the lair that night, they found the turtles hurrying around more so than usual. "What's going on?" Mattie asked. "So Mikey said something smart earlier today and we think we may know where they took your parents/aunt and uncle." Raph said as he passed by. "Really?!" wonder and hope filling Lianna's voice as she asked. Leo nodded as he passed by going the other way, and asked, "Do you want to come with us?"

"Of course!" The two girls said in unison, heading to drop of their backpacks and grab their swords. As they entered the main room, April and Casey came in and were informed of what was going on. They were down for going to, which brought their total number going up to eight. "So after doing some research and calling Karai to confirm, we found out the building your dad worked at is layered. There really is an office area where unsuspecting workers go about their business. We are guessing your father might have found out more than he was supposed to, particularly about the other layers." Donnie said.

"Karai will help us as much as she can from the inside, without blowing her cover." Leo picked up where Donnie left off, "We are going there mainly for your parents, but we need to be sure that there is no one else there as well." "Of course!" Lianna agreed, she wouldn't want anyone to be separated from their families, and if there was anyone else there then of course she would do all she could to help them. "So my Uncle has been unknowingly working for the Shredder?" Mattie asked.

Raph nodded as Mikey said, "Which could also be another reason he was taken. Maybe he found out to much about his boss." Lianna nodded as Casey asked, "So when do we head out?" "Just as soon as the sun sets." Leo answered. "You will need these my sons and human friends." Splinter said, walking into the group. He handed them all a light weight, but warm outfit that wouldn't interfere with their fighting moves. "Thanks Master Splinter!" April said, while the others added on their thank yous.

Lianna was glad that she had done all her homework at school, as she wouldn't have been able to concentrate on it as they waited for darkness to fall. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Leo stood up and said, "It's time. Suit up and let's get ready to roll out."


	10. Chapter 10

They drove the Shell Raiser as close as they dared to their destination, then they all climbed out and took to the roofs. Leo motioned each group off to where they needed to be, one human per a turtle. Donnie and April headed off to see if they could tap into the buildings security, Lianna went with Mikey to see about an entrance in the roof that Karai had told them about, Raph and Casey went to check the back, while Leo and Mattie stayed where they were, waiting to hear from the others.

Karai landed softly behind Leo and Mattie, startling them when she said, "Alone with another woman Leo? I am heartbroken?" "What are you doing here Karai?" Leo whispered. "Letting you know you may want to speed things up, Shredder is coming for a visit and I know how he came be with prisoners, especially if they have been fighting him the whole time." "Thanks for the heads up." He said, smiling at her.

Karai nodded, than headed off into the night, while Leo called the others and told them they needed to step it up. A few moments later, Donnie announced that they had successfully hacked into the security system and Mikey and Lianna said they had found the entrance to use. The other three groups met up with Mikey and Lianna, who waited impatiently for them so they could head in. April volunteered to stay outside and watch for Shredder.

Much as she wanted to be inside, she knew Casey wouldn't volunteer to watch and the two cousins were so anxious to see Lianna's parents again that she wouldn't even dream of asking them. Donnie smiled and nodded at her, knowing just why she was doing it and loving her for it. Donnie blushed as that thought passed through his mind, before drawing a calming breath and thinking, "Focus on the mission, you can dwell on that thought later."

He followed his brothers and the other humans inside, while April took cover where she could watch things without being seen. The turtles cautiously led the humans through the building. The girls training had paid off, for they were nearly as quiet as the turtles now. It seemed to take forever to reach the bottom floor, but in reality it was only three minutes. "Okay Donnie, what do we have here and where are Lianna's parents?" Leo whispered.

"As far as I can tell there are only two people here, both being kept in separate cells. One is two doors down from us and the other is at the other end of the hall on the right, through the last door." Donnie replied. "Raph, you, Mattie and Casey go down to that one, holler if you need help, The rest of you are with me." Leo whispered.

Everyone nodded and hurried to do as they were told. Donnie picked the lock on the door, it taking him some time, so that at the same moment he unlocked it, Raph kicked down the door. The turtles entered first, just in case it was a trap. Raph saw a scared looking man that resembled Lianna a little, who spoke in a scratchy, dry voice that was hardly more than a whisper. "Who are you?" he said. "Uncle Matt?" Mattie said, coming from behind Raph.

"Mattie? Is that you?" Mattie seeing it was her uncle, went running up to him and embraced him. "I hate to break this up." Casey said, "But we have to get out of here before Shredder gets back." Mattie could see her uncle had lots of questions, but she said, "Come on Uncle Matt, we'll explain everything later." Raph came over and helped her get her uncle to his feet, then they made their way out the door and slowly down the hall.

XXX

While the others were getting Lianna's dad, Leo and Mikey had entered the room of her mom first. "Stay back." The frail looking woman said. "Easy ma'am." Leo said. "We're not here to her you Mrs. Dudette." Mikey broke in. Lianna made her way around the guys, her eyes welling up with tears. "Mom!" She exclaimed. "Lianna? Is that really you?!" her mother said. As an answer, Lianna rushed forward and hugged her mom. She broke her contact all too soon and said, "I wish I could explain, but we need to get out of here as fast we can. Can you stand?"

Her mother nodded and stood up, though she wobbled a bit. Mikey and Liana each took a side, leading her out the door just as the others arrived. "Okay Donnie get us out of here. Mikey and Lianna you go next, Casey you take the middle, Raph and Mattie you follow him and I'll bring up the rear." He pushed a button on his phone and a second later asked, "How's it looking April?"

"So far so good, but I think I see some foot coming in the distance, better step on it guys." He hung up and said to Lianna's parents as they walked, "I know you're both feeling a bit weak, but we have to move faster. If you can't keep up, we'll carry you, but we have to hurry if we are going to make it out of here." Lianna's dad knew he would slow them down if he tried to keep up, so he agreed to being carried, so Raph took the full weight of him, with Mattie joining Casey in the center.

Lianna's mom felt she could make it on her own, but soon Mikey had picked her up and they were all practically running to reach the way they came in. They made it there without running into any Foot Bots. Donnie went up first and, with the help of April, brought Lianna's parents up top with him. Casey gave the girls a leg up before getting one from Raph himself.

Leo motioned his brothers to go up next and Raph had just got up when Shredder arrived. Leo jumped up, Mikey and Raph grabbing his wrists and pulling him up. "We need to move, it won't be long before he finds them gone and starts searching. Donnie run ahead to the Shell Raiser and get it running, everyone go as fast, but as silent, as you can." He motioned for Raph and Mikey to once again pick up Lianna's parents and once everyone had started moving out, he followed them, keeping a close eye on his back.

They made it back to the Shell Raiser, only running into a few Foot Bots along the way, which they silently took out. Leo hopped in the driver's seat and started driving through town towards their nearest entrance to the subway. Mattie and Lianna were getting caught up with her parents, the first question being from her mom which was, "Who are these people?" "That's April and Casey, Aunt Skye, and those four are the turtles, Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo."

"Did you say turtles? You mean I'm not hallucinating?" Matt said. "No dad, they came to our rescue the day you were taken." "So you weren't in that building? They told me you were." "Why did they take you Uncle Matt?" asked Mattie. He sighed and said, "I accidentally uncovered a hidden file on the network. When I accessed it, the computer I was at must have been traced and since each employee has their own, they knew it was me. But they didn't do anything after I found it so I thought we were home free."

"But as you can see, we weren't. I am so sorry you girls got caught up in all of this." Matt said. Lianna forced a smile to her face, and said, "It's okay dad. We're safe now. You just rest, I am going to see how much longer until we get where we are going." She got up and looked at Mattie and said, "Keep them talking, we don't want them passing out on us." Before walking up front where Leo was driving. "Leo?" she said.

"What's the matter Lianna?" something in her tone bothered him. "Those aren't my parents. I don't know who they are or what they are, but they aren't them. My father barely knows how to run a computer, other than checking email, let alone tapping into a hidden network file, even if it was on accident he wouldn't have known that it could be traced." Lianna answered, tears of sadness filling her eyes.

Leo's eyes narrowed and he said, "Tell Donnie I need to see him. Try to keep cool Lianna." As she started to turn away he whispered, "I am so sorry Lianna." She nodded to show she had heard him, not trusting her voice. Then she gathered herself and went towards the back. She stopped and said to Donnie, "Leo wants to know about some gage or other Donnie." Donnie gave her a funny look, for other than him, Leo was the one who knew the Shell Raiser better than anyone.

But he got up and headed towards the front, while Lianna was thankful his back was to her "parents". She settled back down in front of her parents and said, "Leo said we should be there in a few minutes." She kept up a study conversation with her parents, while Donnie and Leo had a whispered conversation up front. "Do you think they are Kraang?" Leo asked his brother. Donnie shook his head and said, "If they are they have quickly changed their voice patterns."

"That's not to say they aren't Kraang technology though, Shredder may have recycled some bodies, the Kraang did really well at getting the human body shape down. Let me run a quick scan." He headed back towards the group and said, "How about a family photo now that you are all safe and sound?" "Oh that would be wonderful Donnie!" Lianna said. She and Mattie snuggled up to her "parents" while he took the shot.

"I'll send it to your phone later Lianna." He said before walking back up front to Leo. "Yep, Kraang bodies, shouldn't be too hard to take them down, and the hardware that Shredder has added in won't be of any danger. I'll text Raph and Mikey to take them out." Leo nodded and so his brother followed through with what he said he would do. Mikey and Raph read their messages before looking at each other and nodding. Quick as a blink, Raph took out Matt and Mikey took out Skye.

"Guess we were there to hurt her, my bad." Mikey said. Mattie had figured out was going on at the same time her cousin had, having lived with them for almost four years, but April and Casey freaked out at first. Then they realized they were Kraang bodies with some new tech from Shredder in them. Lianna broke down crying and Mikey scooped her up to hug her, April and Mattie joining in. It was cruel of Shredder to do this, and now they were out of leads.

They dumped the bodies in a junkyard far from their home and then headed back underground. Lianna didn't stop crying the whole time. Splinter was waiting for them when they got home, but the moment he heard the sobs he knew things hadn't gone according to plan. Lianna, who was walking out on her own two feet, saw him and went running to him, burying her face in his robe. He patted her back and asked, "What happened?"

"They were fake versions of her parents, Sensei, created by the Shredder using Kraang bodies and some new technology." Donnie answered, "I'm going to see if I have anything that will help Lianna and Mattie, if she needs it, sleep." Splinter nodded, while the rest of the dejected group came out. Soon Donnie had found some sleeping pills which they convinced Lianna to take. Once she fell asleep on the couch, Mikey carefully picked her up and carried her to her room.

April and Casey said their goodbyes, both giving Mattie a hug and saying how sorry they were. She nodded her thanks before collapsing on the couch. Mikey was still with Lianna and Donnie was in his lab, trying to find a new lead, Leo was with Splinter telling him everything about what happened and Raph was… somewhere, she wasn't really sure. Now that she was alone, she let the tears finally fall that she had been holding in.

Suddenly Raph was there and he asked, "Are you okay?" She shook her head no and said, "First we find them, then it's not them, and when everyone was telling me how sorry they were, it brought back memories of right after my parents died." Then she broke down and sobbed, Raph pulling her into a hug, not sure what else to do. Donnie came out soon, having heard the sobs and gave some sleeping pills to Mattie as well. The last thing she remembered was Raph carrying her to bed and staying by her side.


	11. Chapter 11

The turtles were worried about Lianna. Mattie had stayed about the same, but ever since the failed rescue two weeks ago Lianna hadn't been quite the same. Oh she would still joke and play video games, but her smile didn't quite reach her eyes and the bubbly energy that usually surrounded her, just wasn't there. It was like a piece of her had died that night, like she had lost hope.

Karai had felt awful about the false information she had given them, she felt responsible for hurting Lianna that way. She didn't say it out loud, but it was killing her inside that she did that to her friend. Christmas was coming up and she wished that she could find and give any information that would leave to the real rescue of her friend's parents. But Shredder had said nothing to her lately and she wasn't party to that information. To ask about it would just prove that she was cured of his mind control, so that was out of the question.

Mikey finally couldn't take it, seeing his friend hurting the way she was, so he went to Master Splinter to see what he should do. "Sensei, how do I fix Lianna?" "I didn't know she was broken, perhaps you should have Donnie take a look at her." "Sensei, you know I didn't mean that kind of fix." "I know my son, but the only one who can fix Lianna is Lianna. You can help her get to the point where she does, but she must be wanting to, willing to be fixed."

"How do I even get her there then?" Mikey asked eagerly. Splinter sighed and said, "That is a good question, one I'm afraid I don't have the answer to. Each person is different Michelangelo, and so to get to each person's fixing point, you must do different things. For some its getting to have a good cry, for others it is realizing that someone else is hurting just as bad as they are and needs them. But if anyone can find Lianna's fixing point, I believe it is you, my son."

Mikey smiled at that, determined to live up to his Sensei, his father's, expectations of him. He would get Lianna to fix herself, to bring herself back to being so much fun to being around, to being happy again! "I'm on it Sensei!" He declared, jumping up from where he was kneeling. He went in search of Lianna, knowing she had to be in the lair, as the school had declared a school day, which was epic since the next day was the start of Christmas vacation so the teachers hadn't been able to give out last minute homework.

He saw Karai walking in from the kitchen and so he asked, "Have you seen Lianna Karai?" She shook her head no and said, "I'll help you look for her." Karai found Lianna in her bedroom, working on something that she hid the moment the door opened. When she saw it was Karai she relaxed and said, "Thank goodness it's you, I thought it was Mattie." Anyone who didn't know Lianna would think she was fine, but Karai could tell she wasn't.

"I'm sorry." Karai blurted out suddenly. Lianna paused from bringing the gift she was working on from the hiding place she had stuffed it in and looked at Karai. "Sorry for what?" she asked. Karai looked at the floor embarrassed, but she softly replied, "For giving you such false hope. If I had only know I would never have told you about them, or at least I would have told you they were fakes."

Lianna got up off the bed, her eyes gently looking at Karai. "It's not your fault Karai, you never even met them before. I grew up with them and even I was fooled until my fake dad made a statement that couldn't have been made by him." She stepped forward and hugged Karai. Then she backed up and looked Karai in the eye as she continued, "And you didn't give me false hope, if the Shredder feels the need to make dummies of them they must be alive some place. I have just been wallowing in sorrow instead of seeing an obvious reason why they should still be alive."

She hugged Karai again and said, "Thanks for making me realize I still have an even better reason to hope they are alive." Karai returned the hug, the stress and sorrow she felt for hurting her friend melting away. Lianna was right, the Shredder would not have made a double unless he had a reason to need one. Yes he could have made the robots so that they would have been used to trace the turtles to the lair, but they would have to be alive to find out so much information about them that he almost fooled their own daughter.

Mikey walked in just then and Lianna smiled a real smile at him and asked, "Mikey can you take a picture for me? I need to add this to my scrapbook." He nodded and eagerly took the picture of her and Karai hugging and sent it to her, so happy to see that his Lianna was back. Maybe now he could get a real challenge when it came to video games.

XXX

Everyone was glad to see that Lianna was back to her old self, if not even more happy than before. It was the last weekend before Christmas and it felt like a Christmas gift to have her back. But that didn't mean they were going to take it easy on her for the Who Controls the Weekend Contest, as they had come to call it. They had decided that this one would be a free for all, and that they were taking next weekend off from the contest, so it would be two weeks before they would even have another one.

For the first time ever, Mikey won the solo contest, pitted against Raph of all turtles for the title. "I declare this weekend to be Movie Marathon Weekend! We'll buy pizzas and enjoy movies, everyone gets to pick a movie they want to watch. We'll watch five today and five tomorrow." Everyone was thrilled with this idea and hurried off to figure out which movie they would pick. The order was decided by picking a number out of a hat, Sensei got number one, so his movie was first. He had picked The Karate Kid, the original one.

Mikey went and popped some popcorn while the others got the movie set up and seating claimed. Lianna reserved a spot for Mikey on the couch, after all it was his weekend. As soon as he returned they started the movie. The hours flew by as they watched The Spy Next Door (picked by Leo), Cool Runnings (picked by Raph), The Terminator (picked by Casey), and Batman (the 60s version, picked by Mattie). They laughed, they cried, they screamed in surprise, they did it all.

The next morning they got up and scrounged around for food, for Mikey said it was against Movie Marathon Weekend Rules for anyone to have to cook. Then they got started with Mikey's pick of Are We Done Yet, followed by Princess Diaries (Arpil's pick), The Computer That Wore Tennis Shows (Donnie's pick), Muppets Most Wanted (Karai's pick) and Nanny McPhee (Lianna's pick). To end the weekend, Mikey pulled randomly selected titles from the internet and put them in a hat. The one he drew was the new Annie, and so that is what they watched.

Everyone declared Mikey's Movie Marathon Weekend a success and said it would be fun just to do that sometimes. As they finished off some pizza that they had ordered, Lianna slipped into the kitchen. She returned shortly with ten bowls of ice cream on a tray in one hand and a bunch of Sundae making supplies in the others. As she set everything down she said, "One of my favorite family traditions was we would always make Sundaes on Sunday. I am hoping, that as long the person whose weekend it is is cool with, we can start doing that here too."

Everybody nodded and hurried over to make their Sundae before the ice cream started melting. Mikey kept eating his too fast and getting a brain freeze, causing everyone to laugh, though a few also ate a couple bites too fast themselves. Lianna took a picture right after everyone had finished making their Sundaes and she planned to add it her scrapbook, though it would probably be after Christmas since it was in five days and she still had some gifts to finish before then.


	12. Chapter 12

Christmas was just two days away and Lianna was worried she wouldn't finish everyone's gifts. Why did she have to think that it would be awesome to make something for everyone? Especially since Casey wouldn't be joining them for Christmas, so they were going to have to have theirs tomorrow. Thankfully they decided to do it at night, giving a bit more time for her to finish, but she would have to work right up until then if she was to finish.

Mattie was in the same boat. The only gift she had done was Lianna's and that was because they had agreed to give up an hour each to let the other work on each other's gift, since they were in the same room, and they had both already done that. "We should have given gifts we created together, would have cut our workload in half." She mumbled to Lianna.

"Next year we'll be smarter, we'll either do that or start way earlier or we'll just go out and buy. But the guys can't buy anything unless it's something like pizza, so we can't really do that." Lianna replied back. Mattie sighed, knowing her cousin was right, they would have to start really early next year, and probably work together as well.

XXX

The girls hardly ate or slept, but they did get their gifts done in time to wrap them, though just barely. They put their gifts under the tree along with everyone else's and settled down to wait. Casey, April and Karai arrived together, helping each other transport their gifts. Karai had been keeping hers at April's until she had a chance to wrap them so Shredder wouldn't find them.

Leo, Raph and Donnie came from wherever they had been, Lianna didn't really notice because Mikey came out of the kitchen then with ten cups of hot cocoa. Splinter came out of his dojo, gave Karai a hug, before they all settled in around the tree with Lianna and Mattie. Splinter told them an old story of Christmas' origin as they sipped their hot cocoa. Then it was time for presents.

Mikey was practically bursting with excitement over the reactions to his gifts, so they allowed him to go first. Everyone laughed at the pizza shaped keychain he had made each of them (representing their favorite kinds of pizza) and Lianna hugged him telling him it was perfect. Donnie had, with help from April and Casey, managed to get everyone a book he thought they would like. Lianna had to make herself put it aside as she loved reading, as Raph was handing out his gifts after everyone thanked Donnie.

Raph's gifts were detailed clay figures of each person. Mattie smiled at the detailed work Raph had done, even getting the choppy look to her hair just right. Leo gave his next, a small dagger like knife that he had painted the handle of with each individual's favorite color. Splinter's gift was incense, each person getting something different that was uniquely suited for them.

Karai's gifts were special shuriken. They could do anything from impaling Foot Bots, to holding up pictures and they could go through metal detectors without being traced. April's gifts were boxes she had made, with the help of her dad. There were hidden compartments and each were placed differently on the boxes, some even requiring touching certain areas before they would open.

Casey's gifts was a hockey puck that he had put painted and put pictures of the person and him. On Lianna's it was a picture of her and him when she taught him a lesson, she smiled remembering that moment well. Mattie pulled out her gifts and handed them to each person. Each received an extremely detailed painting of either their favorite thing, or them doing it. Mikey's was of course him eating a pizza.

Lianna stood up and went to the tree, taking out nine small boxes. On each box was the person's name and when they opened it, they were surprised to find a piece of paper with their name on it, folded into intricate patterns. They looked at Lianna and she said, "You have to unfold them." They carefully started to do so, knowing they could never get them back the way they were. As they unfolded them, a word would appear like brave or kind every now and then.

Once they finished unfolding their papers, they found poems written in the most beautiful hand writing they had ever seen, with fancy flairs and swirls. The words they had seen were words from a poem she had written about each individual, telling them what they meant to her. As they read them Lianna snapped a picture of them surrounded by their gifts, loving the looks on each of their faces and wishing she could remember that forever.

They all loved what she had written about them and said they would treasure it always, those who had received a box from April put it in them, while April asked Casey to keep hers safe. As they were doing that, Lianna got up and got the cookies she had had Mikey put in the oven and some more hot chocolate. Raphael had brought out his first go at the figurines, which came out just as well as the rest, which was of him. That gave Lianna idea.

"Everyone grab your figurine and come here for a minute." She said. Mattie grabbed hers as she saw her cousin setting up the camera. Lianna had everyone hold their hand out in front of them with the figurine balanced on it. She then went and set the timer on her camera and quickly got herself into position. Once that was done she excused herself, saying she would be back in a few minutes.

When she came back, she had her photo album with her, and she shared her latest ones with everyone. They of course couldn't go right to them though, they relived all the moments they had, laughing at some funny caption here and there. When they got to the one of them with their figurines they smiled at what Lianna had written under the picture.

"Our first Christmas together. Raphael made us into action figures, proving we are bona fide heroes after all!"

XXX

After Casey and April had left and Lianna and Mattie had said good night, Karai was preparing to leave. Mikey, Donnie and Raph were in their rooms, arranging their new stuff. Splinter and Leo stood with her near the exit as Leo said, "Karai, don't go back to the Shredder, stay here with us." "With me" he added in his thoughts. Karai shook her head and said, "I can't Leo, I am able to give you so much information by sticking with him."

"Miwa, you are more important to us then information. We can go back to not knowing anything until we get there, just please stay with us my daughter." Splinter begged his daughter. She shook her head and said, "Maybe someday, but not just yet." ""Why?" asked Leo. "Because I am this close to finding Lianna's parents Leo. If I leave now, we might never find them. Once the real ones are home safe and sound, then I will come home and stay."

She hugged them both and left before they could say another word. They stared after her a moment silently before Splinter sighed and said, "At least she considers this home now." Then he turned to Leo and said, "My son, once she returns to stay, be careful with how you proceed in your relationship with her. I would not want either of you to be hurt." He turned and walked away as Leo blushed and stammered "Hai Sensei."

XXX

Mattie looked across the room at her cousin and said, "So have you told anyone that your birthday is in four days?" Lianna stopped working on getting the pizza keychain on her purse zipper and looked up at her cousin. "No, I don't really see any reason to, I mean they would feel the need to make or buy me a gift and Christmas for us was just today. Please don't tell them Mattie, once its past or if you want to tell them about yours its fine, but I don't want them going through too much trouble for me."

Mattie nodded and said, "Okay but they will be sad if you don't tell them, I just know it, especially since it will be your 18th birthday! You'll officially be an adult, Lianna." "And you'll be one a week after that." Lianna reminded her. "Can I at least get you a present?" Mattie asked, an idea forming in her mind concerning her reluctant cousin. "If you want to." Lianna said with a shrug, looking for a place to hang the painting Mattie did of her reading, missing her cousin's smile.

XXX

Mattie snuck out of her room early two mornings later, reaching April's house just as the sun was coming up. She knocked at the glass door to April's room, bringing the red head to it still rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Mattie? What are you doing here so early?" "I need your help picking out a birthday gift for Lianna, her birthday is in two days!" Mattie said.

That knocked the sleep from April's eyes as they burst wide open. "Her birthday is in two days?! She hadn't mentioned it to me." "She didn't want to bother everyone since it was so soon after Christmas. She thinks they might see her as greedy for more stuff or something." "She can be too nice sometimes." April said, tapping her finger against her chin.

Suddenly she smiled and looked at Mattie, saying "Let's have a surprise party! I have always wanted to throw one, but people always half suspect it so it's not a total surprise. This one will be! We'll get Master Splinter and the turtles and Casey in on too!" Mattie practically squealed and said, "This will be awesome! So you coming with me to pick out a gift or what?"

"Why don't we wait and ask everyone what they think we should get her? We can get her one big gift from all of us, that way those who can't really shop get to have a say. We can have Splinter send her out shopping or something to keep her distracted while we talk about it." April suggested. Mattie nodded and said, "That's a great plan!" while rubbing her hands together in classic villain style. With that she said goodbye to April, heading for home before Lianna noticed she was missing… hopefully anyways.

*So what did you think of their Christmas gifts? I wanted the gifts from the turtles to reflect their personalities a bit, though Raph's was a toughie and I went with what I liked for a bit of a fun moment later in the story (the photo album scene) more than his personality.*


	13. Chapter 13

TheLadyOfSouls; Thank you so much for all of your amazing comments and for faving this story. It meant a lot to me to see someone reviewing this story!

Two days after she had snuck out to meet with April, Mattie had the job of distracting her cousin while the others got the lair ready. They had to practically duct tape Mikey's mouth shut to keep him from spilling the beans, but it had gone surprisingly without a hitch. It totally made up for the glare her cousin was giving her as they walked back from the grocery store. "You know, when I said I didn't want to tell the others about my birthday, I didn't mean I wanted to forget it entirely. I was planning on spending the day rereading Eragon or perhaps starting that book Donnie got me for Christmas."

"Sorry cuz, but April and Casey were busy and I needed help with these. I promise I won't bother you again today." Mattie said with a smile. Lianna smiled back at her cousin, her mind wandering to what she could read when she got back. Soon they arrived back at the lair and they went to the kitchen and put everything away. Once that was done, they exited the kitchen with Mattie saying, "Thanks Lianna."

Before Lianna could reply, Mikey stuck his head out of the dojo and said, "Hey Lianna, Mattie come here a minute, will yah?" "Sure Mikey." Lianna replied, heading towards the dojo as the turtle stuck his head back inside the room. Maybe Master Splinter was going to host a lesson. As she entered, the dojo was unusually dark, but before she could fumble around for a light, the room suddenly brightened and everyone jumped out yelling, "Surprise! Happy Birthday!"

Lianna stood there with her mouth opened as the others rushed in to give her a group hug. "How did you know it was my birthday?" Lianna asked, casting a suspicious gaze towards Mattie. Mattie tried her best to look innocent as she said, "All I did was ask April for help picking out a present for you." Lianna couldn't stay mad at her cousin, in fact she laughed at her fake innocent act before saying, and "Okay I forgive you, especially since your birthday is in a week." This brought the attention off her momentarily as everyone hassled Mattie for not sharing that detail with them. This gave Lianna a chance to look around the room. There were a few balloons and streamers, and a cake in one corner with a present beside it.

The dojo looked great with the party decorations, and she couldn't believe they had gone through all this trouble for her when Christmas for them had been just four days ago. Her phone buzzed as she received two new photos, one from Casey showing her shocked face and Mattie's laughing one and the other was from Mattie, showing everyone jumping from their hiding spots. She smiled as everyone started drawing her into the celebration, which on Mikey's insistence had included the limbo, which Karai won easily.

Her wish, when it came time to blow out the candles on her cake, was easy. All she really wanted was her parents back. It was her favorite type of cake, vanilla with chocolate frosting (heavy on the frosting, courtesy of Mikey), which she had taken a photo of before blowing out the candles, because they had done an amazing job making it. After she had eaten her fill of cake and Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, Mikey handed her the present, saying, "This is from all of us."

Lianna smiled as she unwrapped it. Inside was the rest of the books to the series that Donnie had given her for Christmas. She couldn't wait to dive into the Percy Jackson books! Mattie smiled at her cousin and asked, "So what would the birthday girl like to do next?" Lianna and Mikey shared a look before they both exclaimed, "Video games!" Everyone laughed before they started heading towards the living room to do just that.

XXX

Later, as they were waiting for their turn again at the game, Mikey tugged on Lianna's arm and motioned for her to come with him. Once they were in the kitchen, he started saying, "I know we all got you that gift, but I had something in mind for a present that April helped me get. I hope you like it." With that he handed her a gift bag. Lianna opened it and smiled. Inside was a new scrapbook and more photo paper for her printer. She put the bag down then threw her arms around Mikey saying, "Thanks Mikey, it's perfect!" Pulling back she asked, "Want to order some pizza?"

Mikey nodded ecstatically, thrilled that she liked his gift and happy that she wanted to order pizza.

XXX

That night, as her cousin's gentle snores filled the room, Lianna finished the book that Donnie had gotten her for Christmas. At this rate, she would be done with them by Mattie's birthday! She smiled as she thought back on the day, how surprised she was when everyone jumped out in the dojo… which reminded her, Mikey's gift came at a good time. She printed out the photos from that day and filled the last few pages of her old scrapbook. Her gifts, including the one's Mikey had given her, were in the last photo that could fit in there, along with the note about his timing being spot on.

As she looked at the one of her cake, her mind drifted to her wish. She had been hoping that her parents would be home by now, that she would have them for her eighteenth birthday. She sighed, looking over at her cousin as she thought, "Now I know a small taste of what Mattie feels at every special occasion." And unlike her cousin she did have the hope that they would one day be returned to her. Sometimes though, she felt like that hope only brought her pain, which she knew was a terrible thought to think, practically wishing her parents dead with it, but not knowing where they were or how they were doing was driving her crazy.


	14. Chapter 14

It had been three days since Lianna's birthday, making it New Year's Eve. Everyone, including Sensei, were bounding across the roofs, heading closer to where the ball would be dropped. Lianna had always wanted to see that live, but of course, living as far away as she had, the opportunity to do so had never been available. Now here she was, with her second family, bounding through the night to do just that. "We must be careful, my family." Sensei said as they approached the area they had decided on, "This is a well broadcasted event. Any slip up could show the world we exist."

"Hai Sensei." Everyone replied. Karai had even managed to slip away from Shredder, so the whole family was there. They had a great view of the ball from their location, Lianna even got a family photo with it in the background. April had tried to get her dad to come, but he insisted he preferred watching it on the TV, so she was a little down at first, but Mikey soon had her laughing along with the rest of them. Soon the countdown began and they all joined in with the crowd below once it reached ten.

"Happy New Year!" They all shouted as they started hugging each other, no one but Lianna noticing as Donnie and April shared a kiss. She snapped a photo of them, but just sent it to them since it was their moment, not hers. They soon left the building top and started heading back to the turtles home where they were all going to spend the rest of the night watching movies and eating popcorn, or at least until they fell asleep. Mikey kept babbling on about how cool it was and how they had to do it again next year.

Suddenly April collapsed, holding her head. "April!" Donnie exclaimed, kneeling down beside her. She looked up at him, as the pain in her head subsided and she said, "The Kraang are here Donnie! Like nearby here, here. I can hear their thoughts. They were able to get a doorway opened to here again and they are meeting with Shredder to get some… new human DNA." Karai hearing this said, "I must head to Shredder's then, I will let you know what I find out when I do." And with that she went running off across the roofs, as Leo thought, "Be careful Karai."

"Do you think it's my parents Shredder is planning on giving over to them?" Lianna asked, a bit of fear sliding into her voice. "I won't lie to you and say most likely not, Lianna." Sensei replied, "Because more than likely it is them, after all what other humans would he turn over to the Kraang?" Mikey gave Lianna a side hug to comfort her as Mattie reached for Raph's hand. He squeezed it without thinking as he stated, "We will get them back this time Lianna and Mattie."

"Which way are they April?" Leo asked. Casey and Donnie helped her up as she answered, "I think the next building over, it's a little hard to tell for sure with all the noise from the New Year's celebration." The group made their way quickly over to the next building, entering through a door on the roof. Following April's directions, they were surprised when she stopped suddenly, almost causing a pile up of turtles, humans and rat.

She whispered so softly those in the back of the group almost didn't catch it as she said, "The Kraang are right through that door. I think Shredder is in there as well, but I'm not sure." Leo and Donnie slid up next to the door, putting an ear to the door. Seconds later they nodded at each other and as one they kicked in the door. Leo dashed through the door first, followed closely by the rest of the group, barely blocking a strike from Shredder headed towards the humans with a blindfold over their heads. Splinter kicked Shredder, sending him flying backwards even further away from the humans, as April, Casey and the cousins rushed to their sides to free them.

Lifting the masks, Lianna saw her parents face and tears filled her bluish green eyes. Were these really them this time or was it just another trap for the turtles? "Lianna!" Skye said, pulling her daughter into a hug. Then she looked around what is going on? Who are these people? And are those a giant rat and some turtles?!" Her reaction was so genuine, that Lianna hoped it was her mom even more, because if Shredder had become this good at making them seem real… she didn't even want to think about it.

"I'll answer that in a second, Donnie can I borrow you for a minute or at least that device you made?" Lianna shouted across the room to the purple masked turtle. "Catch!" He yelled, as he pushed off a Foot Bot and tossed a device her way before taking on another. Catching the gadget, she held it up to her confused mother and followed it all the way down, before doing the same to her father. The results came up as both of them being humans.

Lianna and Mattie tackled them with hugs before pulling back and saying, "We need to get you out of here, than I promise we will do our best to answer your questions." Casey took the front, while April brought up the rear as they made their way out of the building, leaving the turtles and Splinter to fight the Kraang and Foot Clan. The cousins supported the two adults, whose limbs were still a bit numb from being tied up.

"My apartment is closest to here, let's head there." April said. Casey nodded from where he was in front, and once they made it to the streets took an indirect, though quick, path to her apartment in case they were followed. Mattie texted Raph and let him know where to meet them when they could. Once they arrived safely there, April's dad helped make Lianna's parents comfortable. Holding a warming cup of coffee in his hands, Matt said "Thank you all for rescuing us, but I too want to know just who or what rescued us."

So everyone, including April's dad, took turns telling them about Splinter and his sons, how they had taken in the girls to protect them, and how they had been helping them look for Matt and Skye ever since they had been first been taken. They told about their adventures with them, about their holidays together, how they had become like family to them. By this time Splinter and the turtles had reached the apartment, though they waited on the roof in case they weren't wanted in there. They listened to the girls talk about them and it warmed their hearts to know that they were just as special to them as the girls were to them.

Lianna text Mikey, saying "Where are you guys? My parents want to meet you." Mikey informed her they would be right there, entering the apartment mere seconds later. After introductions and greetings were exchanged, Skye stepped towards Master Splinter and said, "Thank you for taking care of my girls, for keeping them safe from the Shredder." "Why did the Shredder kidnap you?" Leo asked.

Matt sighed and said, "I have been trying to uncover the truth about him for years. See me and some of my fellow fencing academy owners had heard rumors about him enlisting people from martial arts academies in secret. He put a friend of ours out of business because he refused to let him come to his martial arts academy. I volunteered to get a job working for him in the hopes I could either uncover something to prove he was doing something wrong, or I could get close to him to find something out about him."

"When the offer for us to move came suddenly we were a bit suspicious, but we knew we had to do it if we ever wanted to get closer to the source of information." Skye supplied, before Matt continued, "I don't know if he wanted me to find out or not, but I discovered a file linking him to his use of Mutagen, which I had no idea what that was. That's when they came and took me. The only reason we aren't dead yet is because of two things, one he thought I had some sort of information that I didn't, and two he wanted to find out who else was wanting to know about him."

"He knew that if anything happened to us, or if we disappeared those that we were working with would get suspicious. He made fake versions of us when we refused to make phone calls, that looked and sounded like us, which he used to let the others think we were going into deep cover for a few months." Skye added.

"We met them, he tried to trick us into taking them to where the turtles live." Mattie answered, "Lianna figured them out when the one that looked like Uncle Matt made the mistake of saying he found it in a way that required too much computer knowledge." Skye laughed and said, "Yes Matt does have trouble with those things, doesn't he. Shredder must have left the file out to be found, because it was right on the desktop."

"So what are we going to do now?" Lianna asked. Matt sighed and said, "I don't know. Who is going to believe that we were kidnapped by him? And how would we explain how we got away. I doubt you guys would want us telling them that four mutant turtles and a rat rescued along with my daughter, niece and two of their friends. Not that they would believe us if we did." "Not that we aren't grateful to be free." Skye felt compelled to say, "Thank you all for that." "Yes thanks." Matt said with a smile.

Donnie had been tapping a finger against his chin and said suddenly, "If that file still exists, I could remote access it, copy it and give it to you to give to the authorities." "Donnie you're a genius!" April exclaimed. He blushed at that and stuttered, "Oh, it's ah, nothing April." Lianna smiled, they were just too cute together. Splinter nodded and said, "Let's go get to work my sons." Turning to Lianna's parent and said, "If you want to stay with us until this is over, you are most welcome to."

Lianna's parents accepted his offer, not wanting to chance being taken by Shredder, though they almost second guessed themselves as they were blindfolded and smells of a sewer filled their nostrils. But once they got to the lair and their blindfolds were removed, they found it was really quite comfortable and you couldn't really smell the sewer in it. In fact the most common smell was some kind of incense.

XXX

A few days later, it was Mattie's birthday and because of all that was going on she forgot what day it was. So Lianna was able to pull a surprise party on her cousin. She and her parents had taken her with them when they went to look at their house as well as get some clean clothes. They were surprised no one had broken in, until Lianna noticed some security cameras that could only have been made by Donnie. They must have kept watch over their home for them.

When they returned, having just entered the lair, the others all jumped out of their hiding spots, shocking Mattie until she remembered what day it was. She laughed and said, "Thanks you guys, I can't believe you remembered what with everything that has been going on!" "How could we forget your birthday?" Raph said, giving her a light punch on her shoulder before handing her present from them all. It was some new paints and canvas, which she couldn't wait to use. Lianna took a photo and added it next to the two from the night they had found her parents.

One had been taken right before they had left April's apartment while the last one was a shot with what she considered her complete family. Raph took Mattie into the next room while the others were distracted by cake and Lianna's photo albums, Mikey insisting on showing her parents his favorite photos, which was to say all of them. "Here." He said, shoving a small gift at her, embarrassed to show that he cared.

Mattie gave him an odd look before opening it, inside was a sai pendant attached to a chain. "Oh Raph I love it!" Mattie exclaimed before standing on tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek. Suddenly shy because of her impulsive action she said softly, "Will you help me put it on?" Raph, still stunned from the kiss, took a moment before he motioned her to turn around. She did so, lifting her hair so he could put the necklace around her neck.

Once it was on, she turned back to him and said, "I will cherish it forever." Looking him in the eyes, they both felt the magnetism, and started to lean in for a real kiss, when a beeping noise startled them apart. Donnie shouted and said, "Hey the program finally broke through all of the firewalls!" as he ran towards his lab. Moments later he exited, a big grin on his face as he said, "I got the file!" Everyone let out a shout of celebration, except for Mattie and Raph, who were both wondering when their relationship had changed over from one of friendship to something more.

*sorry this chapter took so long to get out. I got stuck where April sensed the Kraang and had to take a short break from the story to help me get over it. As you can see I finally sat down and was able to get passed it. I wanted to finish all of my currently running stories before Christmas as my Christmas gift to my readers. Hope you enjoy this chapter and the Epilogue!


	15. Epilogue

It had been a few weeks since Donnie had gotten the file and Lianna's parents had turned it over to authorities. Karai had kept her word and once hearing that Lianna's parents were safe, she came home to stay, much to Splinter's and Leo's joy. Shredder had been arrested and all of his cronies rounded up, all of them being returned to humans thanks to a mysterious benefactor, which was of course Donnie, who supplied some to the special unit used to gather them.

Mattie and Raph had officially started dating, much to the shock of his brothers, though Lianna wasn't surprised. True they both were standoffish, but inside they were both as soft as teddy bears. It was really cute how they were with each other and she was glad her cousin and found someone that made her happy. Lianna wasn't sure what was in store for all of them in days ahead, but she couldn't wait to find out.

*I wanted to leave this open ended for two reasons. One so the story could turn out however you liked in your own mind and two, I do have an idea for a sequel but I'm not too sure on it, but just in case I decide to do it, I don't want the ending of this one to be too final. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy and Merry Christmas! 27,323 words in this story in case you are interested :D


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